FIPEL lighting to replace LED lights, CFL light bulbs?

by Mark Czerniec | December 3, 2012 | 2 comments

Imagine high-quality light that’s flicker-free, produced by light bulbs that don’t shatter, contain no mercury, and are cheap to produce. According to a variety of news reports today, these new FIPEL lighting units (an acronym for “field-induced polymer electroluminescent”) may soon take the place of the compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) and the LED lamp. FIPEL lights are said to be twice as energy-efficient as CFL bulbs, and on par with LEDs.

FIPEL lights use thin layers of plastic — “white-emitting polymer” — that glow when stimulated. The material is moldable to any shape, and the light can produce light of any color temperature desired. It can duplicate the spectrum of sunlight, for example, or produce exactly the color of light from the classic incandescent light bulb, whatever people want.

Here one story from BBC News:

Plastic bulb development promises better quality light

And here’s another from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, at whose Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials the FIPEL lights are being developed:

Taking the buzz out of office lights

Professor of physics Dr. David Carroll, the center’s director, tells the BBC that production runs could begin in 2013. It would seem that PureLux is the technology company which will commercialize these advances.

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2 Comments

Anna Samuel on December 4, 2018 at 9:11 am
Recently i read on a website that these new lights are dangerous as your skin can get burned by these, i don’t know if this is true or not.
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- Mark Czerniec on December 4, 2018 at 9:11 am
  Reportedly, FIPEL lights don’t produce heat and contain no caustic chemicals, so there doesn’t seem to be any burn danger there. The developers say they can tailor the light’s spectrum as desired, so presumably they would not include dangerous UV rays in home or office lighting. It sounds safe as can be from what I have read.
  Reply