nanoREV.

Flexible Electronics and Display Conference 2009

The US Display Consortium recently announced the addition of a business investment summit to their annual conference on flexible electronics and displays. So far much of the interest and activity in nanotechnology has been weighted toward the study of basic nanomaterial properties rather than new applications and even when applications are proposed for nanomaterials these applications usually focus on an improvement of a property of an existing technology (e.g. higher mechanical strength, better electrical conductivity, etc.) rather than the enablement of a new technology. In contrast, flexible electronics is one area in which nanomaterials may actually be essential for enablement. This recent article by Stefan Preisler and Gerd Lange describes how semiconducting polymers, carbon nanotubes, and silicon nanowires may play a significant role as the “inks” for traditional printing tools such as inkjet printing and roll-to-roll coating used in enabling such flexible electronics.

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