High-Resolution R2R-Compatible Printing of Carbon Nanotube Conductive Patterns Enabled by Cellulose Nanocrystals

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with enhanced properties compared to conventional materials are a leading material of choice for fabricating next-generation electronic devices. Nanocellulose-based conductive component-enabled electronics also offer great potential for commercial scalability of environmentally friendly, sustainable, flexible, wearable electronics. Printing these functional materials through R2R printing will enable the economic and high-throughput production of next-generation electronic devices. However, the lateral resolution during R2R printing of these materials is currently limited due to the enhanced aggregation behavior of these high-aspect ratio particles, and the lower lateral resolution limits the performance of the fabricated devices. This article demonstrates high-resolution, R2R-compatible printing of conductive patterns of CNTs using cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) through the topographical discontinuous dewetting and liquid-bridge transfer patterning technique. The CNC dispersion obtained through acid hydrolysis of spinifex grass biomass was used as a sustainable functional ink and deposited as a structural wetting layer, which necessarily allowed the subsequent deposition of a conductive CNT layer to form high-resolution conductive patterns. Conductive patterns with lateral feature sizes down to ∼4.5 μm were reliably printed and those with feature sizes down to ∼925 nm were also possible. The high-resolution conductive CNC/CNT patterns could be printed on different hydrophilic substrates, including flexible, transparent CNC films, for use in devices. This study represents a proof-ofconcept for the realization of the economic and environmentally friendly printing of high-resolution nanocellulose/carbon-based electronics.

Nonlinear Optical Response of Dispersed Medium Based on Conjugates Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes with Phthalocyanines

“…The length of nanofibers varies and can reach 5 µm. Enlarged images show that SWCNTs tend to curl, which can lead to the appearance of large agglomerates in liquid dispersions [44].…”

Printable and Flexible Iridium Oxide-Based pH Sensor by a Roll-to-Roll Process

“…7 Viscous solution (V.S.). 8 Artificial seawater (A.SW.). 9 Beverages include wine, juice, milk, tea, and others.…”

“…However, the fundamental challenges lie in transferring the lab-scale fabrication techniques to high-throughput industrial-scale manufacturing when the products go to mass production [4]. Roll-to-roll (R2R) fabrication processes were improvised for their simplicity with lower capital equipment expenses [5][6][7][8], higher throughputs [9], and a cost-effective alternative for printing lab-on-a-chip (LoC) devices [10][11][12].…”

Roll‐to‐Roll Compatible Topochemical Wetting Control for Metamaterial Printing

“…However, the speed at which the ink can be dragged is currently limited to below 3 mm min −1 due to insufficient wetting contrast between the land and the cells. [31,[34][35][36] By controlling the substrate surface chemistry to create hydrophilic/hydrophobic patterns, higher wetting contrast can be achieved, enabling high-speed ink printing. [27,29] Fluid dynamics simulations have shown that the most favorable configuration for achieving high-speed ink filling, while ensuring the liquid fills the cell with no trapped air, is to create cells with all recessed surfaces being hydrophilic surrounded by a hydrophobic land.…”

“…However, the speed at which the ink can be dragged is currently limited to below 3 mm min −1 due to insufficient wetting contrast between the land and the cells. [ 31,34–36 ] By controlling the substrate surface chemistry to create hydrophilic/hydrophobic patterns, higher wetting contrast can be achieved, enabling high‐speed ink printing. [ 27,29 ]…”