E-reading may be about to take a giant step forward.
Researchers in Sweden have created a new material called power paper that can be
formed into thin flexible displays storing an enormous amount of content.
One sheet of power paper has the capacity to store as
much as 1 farad, or the same amount of information store by supercapacitors currently
on the market. In addition, the material can be recharged hundreds of times and
recharging only takes seconds to complete.
The cellulose material already set a world record for
simultaneous conductivity for ions and electrons. It still must be developed at
industrial scale to be practical, but has the potential to be used in folding
or rollable screens and horizontal display technology.
“We
could end up with e-paper devices that are actually paper thin, foldable, or
rollable, and yet still fully powered,” wrote Paul St. John Mackintosh in a
blog post for TeleRead.