White LEDs that can be printed and manufactured directly on paper have been developed by researcher Gul Amin from Linköping University.

With the development of this new technology, applications as diverse as luminous curtains, bright wallpaper that functions as lighting, self-lit books, etc., are possible.

Gul Amin, in his doctoral thesis at the Physical Electronics and Nanotechnology group, Campus Norrköping, demonstrated how it’s possible for white LEDs to be grown directly on paper. And also, as an example, how to print them on wallpaper — the method for this is currently patent pending.

The LEDs, which are made from zinc oxide and a conducting polymer, can be manufactured directly on paper. The active components of the technology “are nanorods of zinc oxide on a thin layer of polydiethylflourene (PFO), a conducting polymer. But the paper has first been coated with a thin, water-repellent, protective and levelling layer of cyclotene, a resin.”

“This is the first time anyone has been able to build electronic and photonic inorganic semiconducting components directly on paper using chemical methods,” says professor Magnus Willander, who is leading the research.

One of the thesis’ other articles, published in the Journal of Material Science, demonstrates how it’s possible to grow nanorods on paper, then use ultrasound to blow them off the surface, and then collect them in the form of a powder. The powder “can then be used to print the nanorods of zinc oxide, and thus LEDs, on paper or plastic in a normal printing press.” This method of manufacture also has patents pending.

The research was just published in the journal Phys. Status Solidi — Rapid Research Letters.

Source and Images: Linköping University

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For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts; for all is vanity. - Ecclesiastes 3:19