Science and Engineering Blog

Nanotechnologists at the University of California at Riverside have been successful controlling the color of very small particles of iron oxide suspended in water simply by applying an external magnetic field to the solution. The discovery offers the possibility to considerably improve the quality and size of electronic displays and to facilitate the manufacture of products such as electronic paper that can be erased and rewritten, and an ink that can change color when subjected to an electromagnetic field.

In their experiments, researchers found that changing the applied magnetic field strength, were able to change the color of the iron oxide solution in a similar way to setting the color of an image on a TV screen.