Production of highly electro-conductive cellulosic paper via surface coating of carbon nanotube/graphene oxide nanocomposites using nanocrystalline cellulose as a binder

Abstract

Electro-conductive cellulosic paper has attracted great attention as a promising alternative material in the emerging field of flexible and portable electronic devices. However, the environmentally friendly fabrication of electro-conductive cellulosic paper still remains challenging. Herein, green multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT)/graphene oxide (GO) nanocomposites towards the sustainable development strategy were developed and subsequently used to impart electro-conductivity to cellulosic paper via surface coating process. GO exfoliated from graphite powder was used as a dispersant to improve the dispersion of MWCNTs in water media, and nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) derived from cotton fibers was employed as a binder for the MWCNT/GO nanocomposites. Effect of NCC amount on the rheological behavior, particle size distribution, sedimentation stability and zeta potential of MWCNT/GO nanocomposites as well as the electro-conductivity and mechanical properties of coated paper was investigated. Results demonstrated that NCC enhanced the dispersion of MWCNT/GO nanocomposites in addition to serving as a binder. Surface coating application of MWCNT/GO nanocomposites was found to impart high electro-conductivity of up to 892 S m -1 to the cellulosic paper while improving its mechanical properties.

Cellulose nanocrystals prepared via formic acid hydrolysis followed by TEMPO-mediated oxidation

“…In addition, the crystal size of F-CNC and S-CNC was a little larger than that of the pulp sample, while the crystal size of T-CNC was clearly smaller compared to the pulp sample, F-CNC and S-CNC products ( 3b). Similar results were also reported for the CNC suspensions obtained from sulfuric acid hydrolysis (Tang, He, Mosseler, & Ni, 2014). However although the viscosity of F-CNC suspension decreased when shear rate reduced in the range of 0.1-300 s -1 , it was nearly constant when the shear rate was higher than 300 s -1 (Fig.…”

Preparation and characterization of thermally stable cellulose nanocrystals via a sustainable approach of FeCl3-catalyzed formic acid hydrolysis

“…For the past few years, the preparation of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and their application in composite materials have gained increasing attention because of their inherent properties like outstanding mechanical properties (elastic modulus of 130-150 GPa) (Iwamoto et al 2009), high specific surface area (up to several hundreds of m 2 /g) (Ng et al 2015), high length-to-width ratio (up to several hundreds) (Jonoobi et al 2015) combined with low density (1.6 g/cm 3 ) (Moon et al 2011), low thermal expansion (0.1 ppm K -1 ) (Song et al 2013), biodegradability and renewability. Due to their special intrinsic nanostructure and excellent properties, CNCs have wide application potential in nanomaterials, such as aerogels (Mueller et al 2015;yang et al 2015), biomedical materials (Domingues et al 2014;Dugan et al 2013;Jorfi and Foster 2015;Plackett et al 2014), packaging materials (Fortunati et al 2012;Li et al 2013b;Mihindukulasuriya and Lim 2014), optical (Biyani et al 2013;Schlesinger et al 2015) or electroconductive (Lyubimova et al 2015;Ning et al 2015;Shi et al 2013;Tang et al 2014) materials, and several mechanically reinforced nanocomposites (de Castro et al 2015;Habibi 2014;Jonoobi et al 2015;Ng et al 2015;Sapkota et al 2015;Therien-Aubin et al 2015;Yang et al 2014).…”

Flexible Electronics Based on Micro/Nanostructured Paper

“…The current level of the conductometric sensing platform increased with increasing the weight ratio of TiO 2 in the cellulose. A study of highly electro‐conductive cellulosic paper was reported by Tang and co‐workers via blending nanopaper with CNT/GO nanocomposites . In the preparation process, GO was employed as a dispersant to improve the dispersion of CNTs in water media, and nanocrystalline cellulose derived from cotton fibers was used as a binder.…”