Decryption: Where is the magic of "water instead of ink"?

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With the decrease in the price of inkjet printers and the continuous improvement of print quality, the consumption of expensive consumables, especially ink, has become a practical problem that people have to face. A few days ago, a "water-jet printing technology" (water-jetprinting) developed by researchers at Jilin University innovatively found a solution to the problem, which not only greatly reduced printing costs, but also achieved "green printing". This is undoubtedly a challenge to traditional inkjet technology.

"Look, this is a blank piece of paper."

"First, we put water in the cartridge."

"Then, use a normal printer to print."

"Look, it's a magic word!"

It sounds like this water-jet inkless printing is a bit like the cipher text transmitted underground abroad, but it is completely different. The secret paper does not display text at the beginning, and the text appears after encountering a special potion, and this potion is harmful to the environment.

In contrast, the benefits of water-jet inkless printing on environmental protection are self-evident. For people who like to read instant messages and love the environment, this is really a boon.

So, where is the secret of waterless inkjet printing? Mystery is printing paper? water? Is it a printer? In this regard, Professor Zhang Xiaoan of the School of Chemistry of Jilin University answered questions for netizens.

Ordinary A4 paper? Or special paper?

How can colorless water print colored words on paper? Can ordinary A4 printing paper be realized?

Zhang Xiaoan and the members of the scientific research team thought a lot of ways, and even studied the common brush practice copybooks on the market. "The structure of this copybook is based on a charcoal black substrate with two thick layers of paper. When dry, the paper will hide the color, but after adding water, the paper is printed wet and becomes transparent. The carbon black showing through the substrate is a physical change, and the handwriting will disappear in a few minutes. "Zhang Xiaoan said that if you want to keep the handwriting on the paper and minimize the thickness of the paper, you need chemical technology. So, the scientific research team began to work hard on the paper to make a special paper with smart dyes added.

This special paper has a total of 4 layers, and it needs to be completed in 4 processes. "First lay a protective layer on the base of the filter paper to prevent air, then lay a smart dye, and then lay a protective layer. Drying. "In the scientific research team, Xi Guan, a graduate student of the Jida College of Chemistry who is responsible for making special paper, said that the scientific research team has produced a model factory for industrial production of paper, which can be produced manually, and each paper takes 10 minutes to be baked.

At the beginning, the printed handwriting can only be saved for half an hour. Later, the scientific research team continued to improve the process and formula of smart dyes, and the retention time of the handwriting was gradually extended to 22 hours today. The entire research and development took more than three years.

Tap water? Still distilled water?

"We continually screened the paper in the solution and tried repeatedly, and finally found a 'smart molecule'." Zhang Xiaoan explained that this "smart molecule" comes with a "switch", which has two structures, one has a color and one There is no color, "As long as it is in a water environment, the switch will be turned on, a micro environment will be created, and the color will appear. If there is no water, there will be no color."

In addition to special paper, are there any special requirements for printing water?

Zhang Xiaoan said that the water required for printing also has requirements. Distilled water is required and can be purchased on the market. The ink cartridge hole of the printer is very small. If the water quality is very hard, impurities will block the pores of the ink cartridge and affect the printing effect. It is best to use soft water.

The current results are still only preliminary. So far, it is only possible to achieve monochromatic printing of four colors of red, yellow, blue, and purple through the preparation of solutions, and it is not possible to achieve full-color printing. "However, this will be our next goal, in terms of the retention time of writing , Is also improving and extending. "Zhang Xiaoan said.

It can be kept in a dry room at room temperature for 22 hours. If you want to use this paper again as soon as possible, the words on it can disappear immediately.

Dr. Sheng Lan of the scientific research team placed this paper on the digital display heating magnetic stirrer and started the heating function. The handwriting gradually faded. After about 30 seconds, the paper returned to a blank space and was able to continue printing with it.

What is the difference between water jet and inkjet printer?

But under what circumstances do you only need to use one handwriting to keep the print for a short time?

As Zhang Xiaoan said, we can look forward to using this paper to print out the newspapers or magazines every day, and the paper can be printed again and used the next day. For those who like to read newspapers but do not want to cause a lot of waste, this may be a very good solution.

According to Zhang Xiaoan ’s statistics: in 2011, China ’s annual consumption of printed paper reached 27.6 million tons; global printing and copying paper consumption is still increasing year by year, and about 40% of the printed or copied paper is read after one reading Was sent to the trash.

If China can use water jet printing and repeated erasing paper to partially replace one-time-read prints, at least 2 trillion sheets of office paper can be saved each year, about 8.8 million tons, which is equivalent to cutting down 211 million trees 23 cm in diameter, Big tree 15 meters high.

Of course, sometimes the things you need to print do not want to disappear after a day, do you still need a traditional inkjet printer?

Fortunately, the water jet printer is implemented using a standard printer and ink cartridge (using water instead of ink). The unique thing is the paper. This means that if you need a permanent print, you can simply replace the ink cartridge of the printer and use ordinary printing paper.

Is special paper safe?

Are smart dyes made of chemical components in paper harmful to humans?

Zhang Xiaoan said that they have done corresponding research to prove that water-jet inkless printing is safe. "From the point of view of the smart dye itself, we conducted cell experiments and animal experiments to test the toxicity, and the results showed that it is safe." In addition, the protective layer of paper can prevent the color-changing dye from direct contact with people, further increasing safety, " The safety of printing dyes on the market is basically the same, or even safer. "

"Although this kind of paper increases the cost of 5% on the basis of the cost of ordinary paper, but inkjet printing 50 sheets, it takes about 7 yuan. Printing with waterless inkjet technology only costs 8 cents because we It only costs 8 cents to buy a piece of paper, and it can be used 50 times or more. "Zhang Xiaoan said that this" water-based ink "printing cost is about 1% of the same amount of inkjet printing, saving money and Environmental protection.

In addition, because of the precision requirements, the minimum size of fonts that can be printed with water-jet and ink-free printing is at least 5. "In order to type finer characters, we constantly adjust the formula so that the water does not diffuse horizontally, but penetrates vertically. However, sometimes the printed characters are not clear enough." Zhang Xiaoan said.

Zhang Xiaoan still cannot believe the popularity of the online search for "water instead of ink". He said: "I hope not only to get everyone's attention, but also to enable the water-jet and ink-free technology to come out of the laboratory as soon as possible for the benefit of mankind."

Speaking of future applications, Professor Zhang Xiaoan said: "According to the principle of discoloration in water, we can apply to many fields, such as humidity detection. The next step will continue to study in extremely humid or dry areas."

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