Transparent and Flexible Photon Sieve Made with Cellulose Nanofiber by Micro-Nano Structure Molding

Abstract

Conventionally, the photon sieve (PS) was made of chrome-coated fused silica and quartz plates. However, fused silica and quartz plates have a size limitation due to their weight and fragility. A membrane PS is attractive since it is lightweight, large size, flexibility and deployable. This paper demonstrates the new concept of membrane PS based on cellulose nanofiber (CNF). The CNF-based PS (CNF-PS) is transparent, flexible, lightweight, and has high strength and toughness. This study highlights the PS fabrication on a CNF film using a micro-nano structure molding technique and its structural stability in an external environmental change. For the first time in literature, through a high vacuum (5 × 10 -8 Torr) environment test, it was shown that CNF has emerged as a promising optical material. Furthermore, the prepared CNF-PS exhibited high beam quality. This study explained the complete research strategy from the isolation of cellulose nanofibers to its PS application. The new concept of CNF-PS will accelerate its broad application to thin and compact photonic devices.

Nanopaper Electronics

“…Reproduced with permission. [ 217 ] Copyright 2021, Springer Nature. b) Thermogravimetric analysis of original cellulose and TEMPO‐oxidized cellulose or nanofibril.…”

“…For implantable devices, nanocellulose substrate materials should have low surface roughness, excellent flexibility, good elasticity, and good stability in water when used on dynamic surfaces like the heart, brain, and vessel. Currently, successful depositions of transparent and conductive materials, including tin‐doped indium oxide, carbon nanotubes, and silver nanowires should be considered to become industrialized for a wide range of other applications for the downstream electronics, such as displays, touch screens, cars, solar cells, [ 183–224 ] and human‐machine interfaces. [ 225 ]…”

Aramid nanofibers-based multidimensional structure

“…ANFs have been paid attention to and studied as nano polymer fillers due to their higher aspect ratio than other nanomaterials such as nanocarbon, and nanocellulose for high-performance reinforcement composite based on polyurethane, rubber, and epoxy. [4][5][6][7] Moreover, as the nano building block material, many studies on nanocomposite with multidimensional structures based on the ANF matrix have been reported. In order to fabricate the multidimensional structure, diverse polymer structure manufacturing processes such as wet and dry spinning, suspension casting, vacuum filtration, freeze-drying, and additive manufacturing are able to be applied.…”