Roll Up Your Tablet and Stow it Away with New Flexible Screen Technology.

Imagine being able to roll up the screen of your smart tablet before stowing it away. That may be the future as technology advances. Scientists have suggested that a novel DNA-peptide structure can be used to produce thin, transparent and flexible screens, using bionanotechnology to emit a full range of colors in one pliable pixel layer.

"Our material is light, organic, and environmentally friendly," said Ehud Gazit, one of the researchers, in a news release. "It is flexible, and a single layer emits the same range of light that requires several layers today. By using only one layer, you can minimize production costs dramatically, which will lead to lower prices for consumers as well."

In this latest study, the researchers tested different combinations of peptides, which are short protein fragments, embedded with DNA elements which facilitate the self-assembly of a unique molecular architecture.

Peptides and DNA are two of the most basic building blocks of life. Each cell of every life form is composed of such building blocks. In the field of bionanotechnology, scientists utilize these building blocks to develop novel technologies with properties not available for inorganic materials such as plastic and metal.

The researchers used electron microscopy and X-ray crystallography to discover that three of the molecules that they synthesized could self-assemble into ordered structures in just a few minutes. These structures exhibited peptide characteristics, but resembled the double-helix form of DNA.

"Once we discovered the DNA-like organization, we tested the ability of the structures to bind to DNA-specific fluorescent dyes," said Or Berger, one of the researchers. "To our surprise, the control sample, with no added dye, emitted the same fluorescence as the variable. This proved that the organic structure is itself naturally fluorescent."

The light emission doesn't only display different colors, but also responds to electric voltage. This makes it a perfect candidate for opto-electronic devices like display screens. It could also eventually lead to the creation of flexible screens in the future.

The findings are published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).