Near future
Contacts
  • Home
  • Tech
  • Health
  • Environment
  • Architecture
  • energia
  • Transportation
  • Spazio
  • AI
  • concepts
  • Gadgets
  • Italy Next
  • H+
May 20, 2022

Coronavirus / Russia-Ukraine

Near future

News to understand, anticipate, improve the future.

No Result
View All Result

News to understand, anticipate, improve the future.

Read in:  Chinese (Simplified)EnglishFrenchGermanItalianJapanesePortugueseRussianSpanish

The incredible sunflower pollen paper that is printed, de-printed, reprinted

Printing processes may have found a new ally for the environment: this Singapore-developed sunflower pollen paper.

Gianluca Ricciodi Gianluca Riccio
in Environment
Share39Pin10Tweet25SendShare7ShareShare5
sunflower pollen paper

Sunflower pollen-based paper on which you can write and rewrite. Credits: NTU Singapore

April 7 2022
⚪ Reads in 3 minutes
A A

You know, it's a time when deforestation causes biodiversity loss, disrupts the water cycle and changes rainfall. The search for alternatives to recycle or produce paper it is more essential than ever. At least as long as paper printing is still so widespread (and someone would never deprive himself of it).

Scientists of the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore have developed a sunflower pollen-based paper that can be erased and reused multiple times without damaging the material.

How does the process of obtaining sunflower pollen paper work?

The production of this special printing paper is quite similar to that of soap. The cellular components encapsulated in the sunflower pollen grains were removed with potassium hydroxide, and later transformed into soft microgel particles.

Maybe you are also interested

Plastic recycling, shock report: "it doesn't work, and it will never work"

Precious Plastic, refugees clean up plastic from the Sahara desert

In Lucca, plastic packaging becomes a "cover" for street furniture

Lylo, washing machine with recycled water that reuses the dirty one

To remove any undesirable particles from the pollen microgel, the researchers used deionized water. The microgel was then poured into a flat mold and air dried into a sheet about 0,03mm thick (roughly half the thickness of human hair). Last step: the sheet was coated with acetic acid to make it resistant to moisture.

Result? A paper that represents a very valid ecological alternative to the traditional wood pulp-based paper, more flexible and translucent, which is printed and erased. 

pollen paper print
pollen paper that is printed, deprinted, reprinted

The print tests (and reprint)

In testing, the team has established how high resolution color images could be printed on pollen-containing paper (hypoallergenic, I must say) with a laser printer and then “de-printed” completely removing the toner without damaging the paper: an alkaline solution is enough.

At the end of the “de-printing” process, the now cleaned paper is placed in ethanol for five minutes. Another drying, new treatment with acetic acid and off, ready for a new print. The process can be repeated at least 8 times without loss of paper integrity or print quality.

The advantages over the past

I don't deny it: as a layman, reading about all these passages made me turn up my nose: in reality the systems to recover printing paper today require very strong solvents, or the use of intense light that ends up damaging the paper. This new method can help reduce CO2 emissions and energy consumption associated with the conventional paper recycling process (which involves pulping, detonating and rebuilding).

Not to mention the fewest number of felled trees. 

Sunflower pollen is easily accessible, and the process can work with pollen from other plants as well (such as lotus and camellia). The future can be written and rewritten: you just need to know how to print.

tags: À la Carterecycling
Previous post

Stanford develops solar panels that generate electricity even at night

Next Post

DALL-E 2, the AI ​​that creates everything you want: you ask, it draws

COLLABORATE

To submit articles, disclose the results of a research or scientific discoveries write to the editorial staff
  • Domus trimaran

    Domus, crazy zero-emission trimaran

    11665 Shares
    Share 4664 Tweet 2915
  • Create 'renewable' or rather 'perpetual' bio photovoltaic cells

    8227 Shares
    Share 3290 Tweet 2056
  • Plastic recycling, shock report: "it doesn't work, and it will never work"

    4354 Shares
    Share 1741 Tweet 1088
  • Unreal Engine 5, crazy: it doesn't stand out from reality

    5833 Shares
    Share 2333 Tweet 1458
  • Hermeus tries it: hypersonic planes of 6000 kilometers per hour

    2342 Shares
    Share 936 Tweet 585

archive

Have a look here:

exoplanet
Spazio

Discovered an exoplanet that has more water than Earth

The CHEOPS satellite accidentally spotted a rare exoplanet with a lot of water: the discovery is unprecedented.

Read More

Elon Musk: "the Chinese economy will double that of the US"

working week three days

Richard Branson: The real turning point? A 3 day work week

Pangolin, the robotic dress that reads the mind and changes shape

vcoptr falcon drone

V-Coptr Falcon, drone of the future: 2 rotors and brain up

Next Post
astronaut horse

DALL-E 2, the AI ​​that creates everything you want: you ask, it draws

The daily tomorrow

Futuroprossimo.it provides news on the future of technology, science and innovation: if there is something that is about to arrive, here it has already arrived. FuturoProssimo is part of the network ForwardTo, studies and skills for future scenarios.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Environment
Architecture
Artificial intelligence
Gadgets
concepts
Design

Staff
Archives
Advertising
Privacy Policy

Medicine
Spazio
Robotica
Work
Transportation
energia

To contact the FuturoProssimo editorial team, write to redazione@futuroprossimo.it

Chinese Version
Édition Française
Deutsche Ausgabe
Japanese version
English Edition
Edição Portuguesa
Русское издание
Spanish edition

The daily tomorrow

Futuroprossimo.it provides news on the future of technology, science and innovation: if there is something that is about to arrive, here it has already arrived. FuturoProssimo is part of the network ForwardTo, studies and skills for future scenarios.

Chinese Version
Édition Française
Deutsche Ausgabe
Japanese version
English Edition
Edição Portuguesa
Русское издание
Spanish edition

Staff
Archives
Advertising
Privacy Policy

Subscribe to our newsletter

To contact the FuturoProssimo editorial team, write to redazione@futuroprossimo.it

Categories

This work is distributed under license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.
© 2021 Futuroprossimo

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Tech
  • Health
  • Environment
  • Architecture
  • energia
  • Transportation
  • Spazio
  • AI
  • concepts
  • Gadgets
  • Italy Next
  • H+
This site uses cookies. By continuing to read it, you consent to their use.