UK researchers developing paper with ‘memory’

Developers at DMU's Emerging Technologies Research Centre (EMTERC) are exploring the potential of gold nanoparticles and small molecules to create flexible memory chips that can be used in paper and clothing. According to the researchers, tests have shown the nanoparticles can be charged when an electric field is applied and retain that charge when the field is taken away. This ability is essential for use in memory devices as it allows information to be stored in the form of charged and uncharged particles. Dr Shashi Paul, lead researcher and head of EMTERC said: "The use of gold nanoparticles could be an essential step towards the mainstream adoption of organic electronics, as they are commercially readily available and do not oxidise or rust, unlike other nanoparticles which have been tested, such as iron. "Conventional electronics have manufacturing steps at very high temperatures - sometimes up to 1,000^oC, or greater - and these processes are extremely energy intensive and therefore expensive. Organic materials can be processed at room temperature and so require considerably less energy. It also means they can be used with cheap and flexible plastic substrates, which would melt in conventional silicon, high-temperature processing steps." According to Dominic Prime, who also worked on the project as a PhD student, while silicon-based devices are brittle and easily broken if they are bent, organic electronics can be applied to cheaper materials, such as plastic or paper, and can withstand being bent without breaking. "This means they can be used to make foldable or rollable devices, or integrated into things such as clothing," Prime noted. A paper, First Contact-Charging Phenomena in Gold Nanoparticles by Electrostatic Force Microscopy has been published in the Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science and Technology, as well as Applied Physics Letters.