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China Hardware News Technology Science

China Creates World's First Graphene Electronic Paper (techtimes.com) 92

An anonymous reader writes from a report published on Tech Times: China has developed the world's first graphene electronic paper that can possibly revolutionize the screen displays on electronic gadgets such as wearable devices and e-readers. Developed by Guangzhou OED Technologies in partnership with another company in the Chongqing Province, the material is also the world's lightest and strongest material in prevalence today. It's 0.335 nanometers thick and can be used to create hard or flexible graphene displays. Graphene e-paper comes with the capability to conduct both heat and electricity, and it can supposedly enhance optical displays to a brighter level, owing to its high-light transmittance properties. What about cost? Since it's derived from carbon, graphene-based e-papers can be easily produced cost-effectively. Traditional e-papers use indium metal for their display, which is very expensive and rare to source.
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China Creates World's First Graphene Electronic Paper

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  • by Anonymous Coward

    "What about cost? Since it's derived from carbon, graphene-based e-papers can be easily produced cost-effectively". The source element has little to do with the cost to manufacture.

  • by dbIII ( 701233 ) on Monday May 02, 2016 @11:14PM (#52033199)
    The current e-ink market is heavily controlled thus expensive niche items for products that are very cheap to manufacture. We've missed the boat with e-ink phones despite the technology being available for more than a decade - the patent holders didn't want their IP "cheapened" by ending up in inexpensive phones. Hopefully this will open things up a bit. I've wanted an e-ink monitor ever since the technology has been announced but the closest I've been able to get is an android tablet (Boox) and only in the last year.
    • by mark-t ( 151149 )

      Two things.

      Full color.

      Video capable update speeds.

      No? Pass.

      • by dbIII ( 701233 ) on Monday May 02, 2016 @11:55PM (#52033361)
        There are a lot of applications where both of your criteria are not needed.
        Do you really need to play movies on the wall panel that tells you what the airconditioner is doing?
        • by mark-t ( 151149 )
          And there are applications where at least one or sometimes both are desirable, even if not necessarily strictly needed. Other technologies exist that do both, so they are used instead. When epaper can do both, I'm sure there'll be a mass migration to it, but consider that it wasn't until LCD displays were both full color and affordable that they really started started taking off... eventually obsoleting the CRT display entirely..
          • by dbIII ( 701233 )
            Yes but currently those ones that can do both really suck in situations such as in direct sunlight.
            The "device that does everything" does not currently exist so there is no point using it as a comparison.
            • by mark-t ( 151149 )
              The market would seem to think that sucking in direct sunlight is an acceptable compromise to otherwise having color and full motion video.
              • by dbIII ( 701233 ) on Tuesday May 03, 2016 @02:22AM (#52033673)
                The market buys a lot of things, such as e-ink readers due to LCD sucking in direct sunlight. If the deliberately restricted market of e-ink opens up a bit due to real competition and is able to actually act like the market you describe then I think there will be room in the market for more devices.
                Your snarky "market" comment is amusing considering the topic. Do you really know that little about what has been going on with e-ink for a decade?
                • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

                  Sharp's memory LCD technology is daylight readable and uses very little power. Not quite as little as e-ink, but low enough that the little solar cells you get on calculators can run them forever. They are fast enough for animation/video too.

                  The only down side is that they have the same issue as e-ink: patented, single source, not developing very fast and not many different modules to choose from.

                • by aliquis ( 678370 )

                  The market buys a lot of things, such as e-ink readers due to LCD sucking in direct sunlight. If the deliberately restricted market of e-ink opens up a bit due to real competition and is able to actually act like the market you describe then I think there will be room in the market for more devices.
                  Your snarky "market" comment is amusing considering the topic. Do you really know that little about what has been going on with e-ink for a decade?

                  But does it?
                  http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/... [techcrunch.com]
                  http://goodereader.com/blog/el... [goodereader.com]
                  http://www.mobileindustryrevie... [mobileindustryreview.com]

                  The e-ink readers has been in a decline for long and have had their peak "many" years ago.

                  The other guy said "oh buy you don't need color and animation for this purpose!" - yeah, that's the same Amazon argue and that's why their e-ink readers still suck. "But we don't need it because books don't have colors!" (or animations) - If you build it they will come. I don't fucking care that for thousands

                  • by dbIII ( 701233 )
                    See the post at the start of this thread to get up to speed on things like those ridiculous prices.
                • by mark-t ( 151149 )
                  So when a supposedly obviously superior technology doesn't really fly, it must be because of some conspiracy to "deliberately restrict" the market? How about considering just the possibility that it doesn't do what people actually seem to want.

                  When epaper can do what OLEDs currently do with regards to color and full motion video, it will really take off.. but until then, it simply isn't going to be ubiquitous enough to have really widespread appeal, even for applications where it probably would be adequa

                  • by dbIII ( 701233 )

                    So when a supposedly obviously superior technology doesn't really fly, it must be because of some conspiracy to "deliberately restrict" the market?

                    If you had actually read my comment far above instead of a knee-jerk reaction to a keyword then you would know wouldn't you?

                    Congrats - you have demonstrated that you know less about the topic than was mentioned in a single short post that you replied to!

          • That's a load of shit. There's been mass adoption of many types of displays that don't do both of what you describe. This isn't an issue of want, it's an issue of limitations applied by IP holders.

        • by aliquis ( 678370 )

          There are a lot of applications where both of your criteria are not needed.
          Do you really need to play movies on the wall panel that tells you what the airconditioner is doing?

          Yes.

          Now bring me the fucking color displays.

          • by KGIII ( 973947 )

            I was curious so I went searching earlier. I figured I'd open the thread back up and link this:
            http://www.eink.com/display_pr... [eink.com]

            Inside the Triton section, root around. There's some partner showcases that have some color stuff. Some of them are kind of neat. There's some developer kit here:
            http://www.eink.com/developer_... [eink.com]

            The first one is $70 and looks like it might be fun to play with. The second link looks like it's software and info. Obviously, I haven't looked at it very deeply. I'd just looked because I

            • by aliquis ( 678370 )

              Amazon already own it's own color screen technology,.
              http://www.reuters.com/article... [reuters.com]
              https://www.google.se/search?q... [google.se]

              I wouldn't really settle for the very poor colors of the Triton screen. Maybe it would be an improvement for Dungeons & Dragons rule books (or not due to poorer resolution?) but it's too shitty for comics. Why would I read that on that screen rather than IPS or OLED?

              I opened the second link but I can not really follow it / don't know what to look at.

              I guess for speedometers(?) it may be

              • by KGIII ( 973947 )

                Yeah, they're kind of getting there but nothing quite right. I'd seen the latter picture - the one with Slash in it but not the two phones. They appear washed out - for lack of a better phase. I'd like to see more images of the concept that they had for the ruggedized e-Reader. That interests me, a lot. For my purposes, which would be a dashboard, the speedometers look like they'd do the trick.

                Off-topic: I'd like to do a whole dashboard in nothing but touch-pads, ala tablets, and having them in e-ink would

            • by dbIII ( 701233 )
              I've got a device with a Triton display - nearly everyone will find it disappointing for colours since they come out very pale, like old newsprint really. The monochrome resolution is extremely high though compared even with most other e-ink at the time of release (1600x1200) - so text looks very nice on it. The WinCE software on the device with that screen holds it back from anything other than epubs and very simple PDF files (it can't even do rotate). It's a bit of an example of how the e-ink patent ho
      • Well I would be happy with just full color.
        It would be nice to have Wall paper that you can program different colors and designs on the fly. Where you can be delightfully tacky one day. And refined and simplistic the next.

      • Two things. Full color. Video capable update speeds. No? Pass.

        Does every book you read have full color and "video capable update speed"? How about signs? Posters? Indicator displays? Meters? Calculators? No they don't. Some applications need color and/or video. Many more do not. It's idiotic and wasteful to insist on technology not appropriate or optimized for a given task.

        Seriously, don't be so daft as to think every display needs to be some power hungry 4K color video display. In fact there are a lot of applications where the display you describe would actual

        • by mark-t ( 151149 )
          Arguing that many applications don't require it has no bearing on what people seem to actually want. That the current OLED market has all but destroyed the market for epaper suggests that people want what they *LIKE*, not necessarily what they *NEED*.
          • by dbIII ( 701233 )
            People want what they can get. I suggest you actually read some of the posts you have replied to instead of your lazy and insulting keyword kneejerks. It's very clear that you know less about the topic than you could have easily picked up today without even following a link.
  • Please stop linking to sites that are 70% ads.

  • this is great! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Gravis Zero ( 934156 ) on Tuesday May 03, 2016 @12:00AM (#52033379)

    i'm looking forward to cheap epaper for stuff because the current e-ink clowns refuse to work with anyone that isn't a multibillion dollar company.

    • by dbIII ( 701233 )
      Now that's a post that should be modded up to eleven if it was possible.
    • by inflex ( 123318 )

      Agreed. Went looking for some eInk solutions for a few projects a while back, ended up just giving up as there seems to be this great void between the accessible ( 2~2.5" max ) and the "Good luck buddy, no help for you!" 6"+ displays. Ever since eInk really captured the developer imagination, it feels like it's been some ludicrously guarded secret club to get your hands on a decent unit at a sane price.

      Ideally I'd still love to see a reasonably fast refresh (10Hz) 13~15" eInk display.

      • by KGIII ( 973947 )

        That seems odd. I have a friend out in Nevada who was talking about getting a run of something like 100,000 ebooks made to his design and specs. I seem to recall he said he was going to send me one and he might have actually done so. I did see pics of his prototypes and they were probably 7-8" if I had to guess. I didn't ask the specs.

        I can assure you, he is not a billionaire. He's probably a millionaire on paper but he's cash-poor. He's got some assets but not ones that are easily liquidated and that's the

  • ... in a while.

    A) this is not the first time a conductive graphene coating has been shown.
    B) It won't revolutionize anything, it's just a very conductive transparent material, like on all LCD screens. It's about cost.
    C) Lightest typically means low density, not just small. A single molecule of water is 'lighter' than graphene.
    D) At 1nm thick, any material is flexible. The flexibility at this scale depends entirely upon the substrate the graphene is on.
    E) While graphene is an excellent heat conductor, the qu

  • by John.Banister ( 1291556 ) * on Tuesday May 03, 2016 @12:39AM (#52033451) Homepage
    No information on the switching speed.
    No information on the pixel density.
    No information on the energy consumption.
    No information on the reflectivity or whether it's transmissive instead or whether it emits light.
    No information on whether it's a straight on-off effect or whether they can do pixel level grayscale.
    No description of how it works.
    Just descriptions of graphene and the sentence "we used it to make electronic paper." One of the articles did say that their time scale for having a product is "within a year.". I think I'll forget about it until then.
    • No information on the switching speed. No information on the pixel density. No information on the energy consumption. No information on the reflectivity or whether it's transmissive instead or whether it emits light. No information on whether it's a straight on-off effect or whether they can do pixel level grayscale. No description of how it works. Just descriptions of graphene and the sentence "we used it to make electronic paper." One of the articles did say that their time scale for having a product is "within a year.". I think I'll forget about it until then.

      It's in the lab not a product FFS!
      If you don't want to read about emerging technology then read other articles.

      • I wanted to read about emerging technology. In this case, all the informational content about the nature of the emerging technology was in the headline. I have to read other articles if I do want to read about emerging technology.
        • by dbIII ( 701233 )
          Switching speed, pixel density, energy consumption etc are features of a prototype product instead of a newly devised technology at the first announcement stage.
          • And the only information available came across like a manufacturer's product announcement press release, not like a description of first success in lab work. If you have better information, post a link.
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      The company behind this already makes e-paper displays [oedtech.com].

      The Chinese press release [oedtech.com] has a little bit more info. While they don't give any specs, they do say that the new system can be used in flexible displays. It won't be emitting any light if it is e-paper, the basic definition of which is that it is ultra low power and passive (like actual paper).

      They also note that graphine was discovered in the UK. It's interesting to note that while the UK discovered this material, we have largely failed to capitalize on

      • I read the Google translate version of that document. It said they got e-ink to stick to graphene, and talked about how two companies had formed a partnership to find something to replace ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) in displays, suggesting that the e-ink is what they've used in the past and that the graphene will be the transparent surface layer in their product. Then, it talked about ITO, and it talked about graphene, and it talked about IP disputes and yota phone with Putin. So, it did have a little bit more t
    • +1. And not even a photo of a prototype.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    The first sentence in many Russian articles is "America did something", as you well know, later it is revealed that it was never America or even US government but some company or an individual. Communists always give credit to the whole country, never to individuals involved.

  • Since it's derived from carbon, graphene-based e-papers can be easily produced cost-effectively.

    Look, one thing does not follow from the other. Carbon fiber is made from carbon, but it's expensive as hell because of the necessary energy input. So what makes this stuff cheap? TFA doesn't say, either.

    • by dbIII ( 701233 )
      Graphene on the other hand is a lot easier, hence the assumption in the article. It's a reordering of graphite that isn't as difficult to do as lining everything up in one direction as with carbon fibre.

      As an analogy, it's like comparing the very large, very pure silicon ingots used for microprocessors with a sandcastle.
  • Waiter.. The chopsticks with the animated porn advertisements is somewhat distracting! *Credit to Neal Stephenson (except the porn part)*
  • by Anonymous Coward

    They are NOT the first. It's already been done.

    The following company already did that as a demonstrator.

    http://www.graphenea.com/collections/graphene-oxide

  • I'll never fit that in my pocket. I bet Apple will get it much thinner.

If all else fails, lower your standards.

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