Green wonder: This erasable paper can be used 260 times

Taipei: “i2R e-Paper” is paper but not paper as we know it — not yet, anyway, say its Taiwan developers.

The product uses a thermal printer, the same kind as that used in fax machines. When the message is no longer needed, the paper can be erased with the flip of a switch — ready to be used up to 260 times. Researchers at the Industrial Technology Research Institute, where the paper was developed, say it is the ideal replacement for the paper signs and posters that are now produced by the millions around the world.

“I think the greatest breakthrough was that traditional display devices usually require electricity to write, but our technology made it closer to how we would use normal paper,” said John Chen, Vice President of the Institute and general director of the Display Technology Center. “First, it does not require patterned electrodes — it is very light, soft and rewritable. This is a true e-paper.”

What makes “i2R e-paper” stand out is its coating is a plastic film covered with cholestric liquid crystal, a type of liquid crystal structured similarly to cholesterol molecules. REUTERS