4 ms·
Here is the original paper from the researchers: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ads2426 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ads2426 Apparen
by cloudbonsai 1y ago
Here is the original paper from the researchers:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ads2426 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ads2426
Apparently they wanted to create a material that:
1. is transparent,
2. can be made thick enough,
3. and is purely cellulose-based.
Cellophane meets 1 and 3 but is hard to be made thick. Paper satisfies 2 and 3 but is not transparent. Celluroid is not explicitly mentioned in the paper, but I gather it does not satisfy 3 since it's hardly pure-cellulose.
The main application target seems to be food packaging.
- teleforce 1y agoGreat summary of paper akin of TL;DR. If only AI/LLM can summarize most research papers like this correctly and intuitively I think most people will pay good money for it, I know I would.
- bookofjoe 1y agoThe Wall Street Journal recently started putting a 3-bullet-point AI generated summary at the top of each story.
- phire 1y agoWe do have translucent paper. It's nowhere near transparent, but translucent enough to give you some idea about what's inside. I've seen it used in the packaging for a few products at my local supermarket. I think it's Glassine? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glassine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glassine
- iancmceachern 1y agoThere are also transparent rolling papers
- euroderf 1y agoGlassine has been around forever. Useful for philately!
- albert_e 1y agoIs this the paper, i wonder, that was used in old physical photo albums. Every alternate leaf was a translucent / see-through paper that would protect the photo print's surface and ink from getting fused to the previous page.
- cbmuser 1y agoBut Cellophane is already used for food packaging.
- kazinator 1y agoA decently transparent (for the purposes) cellolose-based material is a wet cotton T-shirt.
- kazinator 1y agoCelluloid (nitrated cellulose with camphor) is not the only transformation of cellulose into a plastic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulose_acetate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulose_acetate dates back to the 19th century; tough enough to be used for films and eyeglass frames. Production involves some chems: "cellulose [pulp] is reacted with acetic acid and acetic anhydride in the presence of sulfuric acid." Acetic anhydride is restricted in some countries because it's used in making heroin.