Nature Degradable, Flexible, and Transparent Conductive Substrates from Green and Earth-Abundant Materials

Bing Yang,Xudong Wang,Zhaodong Li,Chunhua Yao,Yanhao Yu

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-04969-y

Bing Yang, Xudong Wang + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-04969-y

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Abstract

The rapid development of wearable and disposable electronic devices and the rising awareness of environmental sustainability impose growing new demands on the nature degradability of current electronic and energy systems. Here we report a new type of flexible transparent conductive paper completely made from green and earth abundant materials which are also fully degradable and recyclable. Aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) was deposited by low-temperature atomic layer deposition (ALD) as the transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layer on transparent cellulose nanofibril (CNF) papers. The mesoporous structure of the CNF paper rendered strong adhesion of the AZO layer and exhibited excellent mechanical integrity and electrical conductivity within a wide range of tensile and compressive strains. The AZO-CNF paper could be completely dissolved in warm city water after one-hour stirring, demonstrating an excellent nature degradability. A flexible and transparent triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) was further fabricated using such AZO-CNF papers with a performance that was comparable to other synthetic polymer-based systems. This work illustrated a new and promising strategy of utilizing 100% green and degradable materials in novel electronic and energy harvesting devices.

Highlights

A subcategory in flexible transparent electrodes development deals with the degradability and recyclability, in response to the increasing demands from wearable and disposable electronic devices
A thin layer of Aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) with a thickness of 285 nm was deposited by low-temperature atomic layer deposition (ALD), which was able to offer excellent film uniformity and conformality[29]
An AZO thin film was deposited on a cellulose nanofibril (CNF) paper by low-temperature ALD creating a new type of flexible transparent transparent conductive oxide (TCO) substrate

Summary

Introduction

A subcategory in flexible transparent electrodes development deals with the degradability and recyclability, in response to the increasing demands from wearable and disposable electronic devices. Recent pioneer developments in electronics and energy-related fields have started to utilize and integrate CNF paper as the substrate in device fabrication, such as flexible transistors[24], Li-ion www.nature.com/scientificreports/. Despite the tremendous application potential, there is no systematic investigation of developing CNF paper-based flexible transparent conductive substrates. We present a development of flexible and nature degradable transparent electrodes based on CNF paper. The AZO-CNF paper can be readily dissolved in warm city water showing a good nature degradability. They were further used to fabricate a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) device revealing a promising application potential as flexible transparent electrodes in electronic devices

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