SignificancePlants with integrated electronics, e-Plants, have been presented recently. Up to now the devices and circuits have been manufactured in localized regions of the plant due to limited distribution of the organic electronic material. Here we demonstrate the synthesis and application of a conjugated oligomer that can be delivered in every part of the vascular tissue of a plant and cross through the veins into the apoplast of leaves. The oligomer polymerizes in vivo due to the physicochemical environment of the plant. We demonstrate long-range conducting wires and supercapacitors along the stem. Our findings open pathways for autonomous energy systems, distributed electronics, and new e-Plant device concepts manufactured in living plants.

Bulk-heterojunction based organic photodetectors are fabricated by means of drop-on-demand inkjet printing with vertical topology, inverted structure, and small footprint (about 100 μm x 100 μm). Due to optimization of the deposition technique, an external quantum efficiency in excess of 80% at 525 nm and a -3dB bandwidth of a few tens of kHz is achieved.

All-organic, fully-printed and semitransparent photodetectors with a broad wavelength band response, based on a ternary blend comprising narrow band-gap small molecules, are demonstrated. The ternary blend with a semiconducting polymer allows for the optimal printing of small molecules, suppressing strong phase segregation, and uncontrolled crystallization. The insertion of a suitable interlayer enables the adoption of polymer, transparent, top and bottom printed electrodes, thus making light detection possible from both device sides.

The increasing demands to further electrify and digitalize our society set demands for a green electrical energy storage technology that can be scaled between very small, and heavily distributed electrical energy sources, to very large volumes. Such technology must be compatible with fast-throughput, large-volume and low-cost fabrication processes, such as using printing and coating techniques. Here, we demonstrate a sequential production protocol to fabricate supercapacitors including electrodes based on cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) and the conducting polymer PEDOT:PSS. Thin and lightweight paper electrodes, carbon adhesion layers and the gel electrolyte are fabricated using spray coating, screen printing, and bar coating, respectively. These all solid-state supercapacitors are flexible, mechanically robust and exhibit a low equivalent series resistance (0.22 Ω), thus resulting in a high power density (∼104 W/kg) energy technology. The supercapacitors are combined and connected to a power management circuit to demonstrate a smart packaging application. This work shows that operational and embedded supercapacitors can be manufactured in a manner to allow for the integration with, for instance smart packaging solutions, thus enabling powered, active internet-of-things (IoT) devices in a highly distributed application.

further extends to a vast range of applications in information processing, photonic integrated systems, x-ray medical imaging and spectroscopy, alignment systems, position detection, industrial manufacturing, time and frequency measurements, short range plastic-fiber based transceivers, integrated sensors for Lab-on-a-chip reactors. The advent of complementary metal oxides semiconductors (CMOS) has enabled the development of image sensors fostering the growth of the rich market for digital cameras and other image sensors and scanners.So far, the technology development in this field has mostly targeted the device miniaturization, the achievement of an increased responsivity, short time response, low noise and operational voltage and high dynamic range. Inorganic compounds have been playing a major role as active materials for light detection. Silicon is the most exploited one, enabling light detection in a wide spectral range going from the visible to the near-infrared (NIR), up to 1.1 μm. A main limit in

Demands in the storage of energy have increased for many reasons, in part driven by household photovoltaics, electric grid balancing, along with portable and wearable electronics. These are fast-growing and differentiated applications that urge for large volume and/or highly distributed electrical energy storage, which then requires environmentally friendly, scalable and flexible materials and manufacturing techniques. However, the limitations on current inorganic technologies have driven research efforts to explore organic and carbon-based alternatives. Here, we report a conducting polymer:cellulose composite that serves as the active material in supercapacitors which has been incorporated into all printed energy storage devices. These devices exhibit a specific capacitance of ≈ 90 F/g and an excellent cyclability (>10,000 cycles). Further, a design concept coined 'supercapacitors on demand' is presented, which is based on a printing-cutting-folding procedure, that provide us with a flexible production protocol to manufacture supercapacitors with adaptable configuration and electrical characteristics.

possess pyroelectric properties, including the leaves of the palm-like plant Encephalartos. [4] While the physiological implications of pyroelectricity in plants and other biomaterials are still poorly understood, [4,5] the effect can already be utilized in artificial devices for applications including light detection [2d,6] and energy harvesting. [3,7] Pyroelectric polymers have attracted considerable attention owing to their mechanical flexibility, easy processing, and low cost. [4,5] While there are a number of pyroelectric polymers, such as poly(vinylchloride) and Nylon 11, poly(vinylidene fluoride) and its copolymer poly(vinylidenefluoride-cotrifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TRFE)) are particularly promising due to high pyroelectric coefficients and good chemical stability. [2a,c,d,8] Typical application areas for these polymers include heat sensing, thermal imaging, and fire alarms. [2a] In addition, these polymers have been significantly explored based on their piezoelectric properties to harvest mechanical energy. [3,9] Their combination with plasmonic nanostructures was only recently reported, for laser-based patterned phase-control of ferroelectric polymers. [10] However, plasmonic heating was, to our knowledge, not previously investigated for pyroelectric energy harvesting.Here, we present a concept that converts temporal fluctuations in sunlight to electrical energy. The device combines a plasmonic metasurface consisting of gold nanodisks with a thin organic P(VDF-TrFE) copolymer film. The plasmonic nanostructures strongly absorb light through resonant excitation of plasmons (collective charge oscillations), which leads to local heating of both the nanostructure and the surrounding environment. [11] Such light-induced plasmonic heating can enable a wide range of applications, including solar-powered autoclaving, [12] plasmon-driven thermophoresis, [13] seawater catalysis, [14] plasmonic-thermoelectric light detection, [15] and desalination concepts. [14] In our hybrid plasmonic-pyroelectric device (referred to as hybrid device below), plasmonic heating of a gold nanodisk array modulates the temperature of a pyroelectric polymer. The polymer then converts these temperaturechanges to electrical signals through the pyroelectric effect.We demonstrate the concept by designing a device that powers an external load connected to the hybrid device, and by characterizing its performance in detail. Combined optical and thermal simulations of the hybrid device are in agreement with State-of-the-art solar energy harvesting systems based on photovoltaic technology require constant illumination for optimal operation. However, weather conditions and solar illumination tend to fluctuate. Here, a device is presented that extracts electrical energy from such light fluctuations. The concept combines light-induced heating of gold nanodisks (acting as plasmonic optical nanoantennas), and an organic pyroelectric copolymer film (poly(vinylidenefluoride-co-trifluoroethylene)), that converts temperature changes into electrical sig...

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