Tuesday 30 August 2011

reagent and chemical kinetics

Just as regulatory decisions, with moaning and feet-dragging, possibly apt, and once set for a far, distant future which phase out production of the familiar incandescent light bulb for more, debatably, efficient models, come into effect in Germany, a production facility for organic light-emitting diodes (LEDs) (DE) has been inaugurated in Regensburg (Ratisbon) on the Danube. The process is still being perfected since the discovery of this property in the 1950s, but in application, these electroluminescent membranes can be stretched and spindled across larger surfaces and maintain contrast and visual integrity without a back-light. Manufacture is also less energy intensive, since unlike with current display screens that require a housing be prepared, organic LEDs can be printed onto any suitable surface, flexible or rigid. LEDs bulbs are also among the alternatives touted to old-fashioned light bulbs, whose longevity and durability (and lack of toxic gas wafting off the circuitry when in use) could not previously overcome their high cost, but now, with factory expansion, maybe that price will come down. Technology always outpaces good governmental intent, perhaps making the proclaimed next generation of lighting already obsolete, and the future a less friendly territory for green-washing and impostors.