Paper turned into an eco-friendly light-emitting display

PAPER, light thyself. A light-emitting display has been created out of ordinary paper. It could one day make disposable displays for packaging or newspapers, using cheap and environmentally friendly materials.

Ludvig Edman from Umeå University in Sweden and his team sprayed six layers of different materials onto a piece of paper: an adhesive, four layers that carry current and turn electricity into light and a capping layer to keep it all in place. When juiced with 11 volts, the paper glows as bright as many computer displays.

Edman says it could be a low-cost alternative to LEDs, which are usually used for illumination, and OLEDs, which are used for high-end displays. LEDs are efficient but expensive, so a cheap, eco-friendly version could have traction. The light can be printed in the same way as a newspaper, is highly flexible and, unlike glass displays, doesn't break into dangerous shards (Advanced Functional Materials, doi.org/f27f9b).

Other uses for light-emitting paper could include tagging goods so that they automatically light up when close to their expiry date, notifying a patient who has forgotten to take their medication, or easily tracking and identifying packages in a big pile.