packaging and clothes could display electronic information such as this warning on yoghurt not to eat it. Thin, flexible devices may allow lighting and electronic display screens to be created - for the first time - on almost any material.
A MASSIVE change in the way we design clothes and light our homes could come about with the use of a thin film of plastic that conducts electricity and produces solar power.
An international research project has begun that could help bring to mass-market organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) that could have far-reaching technological implications and cut the cost of lighting by billion of dollars each year.
The devices are thin and flexible allowing lighting and electronic display screens to be created - for the first time - on almost any material, meaning that even clothes and packaging could display electronic information.
These super-OLEDs could warn if the food in your refrigerator is still good to eat. And at an emergency, the jacket of a police officer, ambulance crew or fire-fighter could flash warnings or directions to anyone nearby or passing.
The use of such devices could vary from lighting that is many times more efficient than today’s light-bulbs - to clothes whose colour can be changed at will, and drinks cans that display the latest sports results.
At present the devices are used as displays in some mobile phones and MP3 players but they are not reliable enough for larger screens such as in TVs and computers because they stop working after a few months.
Now, an international consortium of researchers, led by the University of Bath in the United Kingdom, has begun a three-year project costing 850,000 pounds to put the science behind the devices on a firmer basis, therefore helping make them efficient enough to be worth producing for the mass market.
The consortium is called Modecom and consists of 13 groups from nine universities and two companies. Three groups are from the UK, six from the United States, and one each from China, Belgium, Italy and Denmark. The European Union is funding the partners from Europe and China.
“The devices exploit a discovery made about 15 years ago that revealed some polymers have the unusual property of either turning electricity into light, or light into electricity, depending on how the devices are made,” said a spokesman.
“Because these polymers are thin and flexible, they could be used in many ways, such as a transparent window. This appears to be a conventional window during the day but when it gets dark, a switch is turned on and the entire window area emits light in a more efficient way than conventional or energy-saving bulbs, promising huge savings.”
Furthermore, clothing could display strips of the polymer that run off solar power, allowing electronic messages to be displayed and that can be updated. Thi