The first light-emitting, transparent, flexible paper made from environmentally friendly materialshas been developed by scientists at Sichuan University in China, the scientists report in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

Most current flexible electronics paper designs rely on petroleum-based plastics and toxic materials.

The researchers developed a thin, clear nanocellulose paper made from wood flour and infused it with biocompatible quantum dots — tiny semiconducting crystals — made out of zinc and selenium. The paper glowed at room temperature and could be rolled and unrolled without cracking.

The researchers are currently developing papers that emit other colors than blue.

The authors acknowledge funding from the Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

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Abstract of Let It Shine: A Transparent and Photoluminescent Foldable Nanocellulose/Quantum Dot Paper

Exploration of environmentally friendly light-emitting devices with extremely low weight has been a trend in recent decades for modern digital technology. Herein, we describe a simple suction filtration method to develop a transparent and photoluminescent nanocellulose (NC) paper, which contains ZnSe quantum dot (QD) with high quantum yield as a functional filler. ZnSe QD can be dispersed uniformly in NC, and a quite low coefficient of thermal expansion is determined for the resultant composite paper, suggesting its good dimensional stability. These results indicate that the meeting of NC with ZnSe QD can bring a brilliant future during the information age.