Boron-doped few-walled carbon nanotubes: novel synthesis and properties.

Few-walled carbon nanotubes offer a unique marriage of graphitic quality and robustness to ink-processing; however, doping procedures that may alter the band structure of these few-walled nanotubes are still lacking. This report introduces a novel solution-injected chemical vapor deposition growth process to fabricate the first boron-doped few-walled carbon nanotubes (B-FWNTs) reported in literature, which may have extensive applications in battery devices. A comprehensive characterization of the as-grown B-FWNTs confirms successful boron substitution in the graphitic lattice, and reveals varying growth parameters impact the structural properties of B-FWNT yield. An investigation into the optimal growth purification parameters and ink-making procedures was also conducted. This study introduces the first process technique to successfully grow intrinsically p-doped FWNTs, and provides the first investigation into the impact factors of the growth parameters, purification steps, and ink-making processes on the structural properties of the B-FWNTs and the electrical properties of the resulting spray-coated thin-film electrodes.

Extreme Light Management in Mesoporous Wood Cellulose Paper for Optoelectronics.

Wood fibers possess natural unique hierarchical and mesoporous structures that enable a variety of new applications beyond their traditional use. We dramatically modulate the propagation of light through random network of wood fibers. A highly transparent and clear paper with transmittance >90% and haze <1.0% applicable for high-definition displays is achieved. By altering the morphology of the same wood fibers that form the paper, highly transparent and hazy paper targeted for other applications such as solar cell and antiglare coating with transmittance >90% and haze >90% is also achieved. A thorough investigation of the relation between the mesoporous structure and the optical properties in transparent paper was conducted, including full-spectrum optical simulations. We demonstrate commercially competitive multitouch touch screen with clear paper as a replacement for plastic substrates, which shows excellent process compatibility and comparable device performance for commercial applications. Transparent cellulose paper with tunable optical properties is an emerging photonic material that will realize a range of much improved flexible electronics, photonics, and optoelectronics.

Aqueous gating of van der Waals materials on bilayer nanopaper.

In this work, we report transistors made of van der Waals materials on a mesoporous paper with a smooth nanoscale surface. The aqueous transistor has a novel planar structure with source, drain, and gate electrodes on the same surface of the paper, while the mesoporous paper is used as an electrolyte reservoir. These transistors are enabled by an all-cellulose paper with nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) on the top surface that leads to an excellent surface smoothness, while the rest of the microsized cellulose fibers can absorb electrolyte effectively. Based on two-dimensional van der Waals materials, including MoS2 and graphene, we demonstrate high-performance transistors with a large on-off ratio and low subthreshold swing. Such planar transistors with absorbed electrolyte gating can be used as sensors integrated with other components to form paper microfluidic systems. This study is significant for future paper-based electronics and biosensors.

Light management in flexible glass by wood cellulose coating.

Ultra-thin flexible glass with high transparency is attractive for a broad range of display applications; however, substrates with low optical haze are not ideal for thin film solar cells, since most of the light will go through the semiconductor layer without scattering, and the length of light travelling path in the active layer is small. By simply depositing a layer of TEMPO (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl radical)-oxidized wood fibers (TOWFs), we are able to tailor the optical properties of flexible glass dramatically from exhibiting low haze (<1%) to high haze (~56%) without compromising the total forward transmittance (~90%). The influence of the TOWFs morphology on the optical properties of TOWFs-coated flexible glass is investigated. As the average fiber length decreases, the transmission haze of TOWF-coated flexible glass illustrates a decreasing trend. Earth-abundant natural materials for transparent, hazy, and flexible glass have tremendous applicability in the fabrication of flexible optoelectronics with tunable light scattering effects by enabling inexpensive and large-scale processes.

Highly thermally conductive papers with percolative layered boron nitride nanosheets.

In this work, we report a dielectric nanocomposite paper with layered boron nitride (BN) nanosheets wired by one-dimensional (1D) nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) that has superior thermal and mechanical properties. These nanocomposite papers are fabricated from a filtration of BN and NFC suspensions, in which NFC is used as a stabilizer to stabilize BN nanosheets. In these nanocomposite papers, two-dimensional (2D) nanosheets form a thermally conductive network, while 1D NFC provides mechanical strength. A high thermal conductivity has been achieved along the BN paper surface (up to 145.7 W/m K for 50 wt % of BN), which is an order of magnitude higher than that in randomly distributed BN nanosheet composites and is even comparable to the thermal conductivity of aluminum alloys. Such a high thermal conductivity is mainly attributed to the structural alignment within the BN nanosheet papers; the effects of the interfacial thermal contact resistance are minimized by the fact that the heat transfer is in the direction parallel to the interface between BN nanosheets and that a large contact area occurs between BN nanosheets.

Novel nanostructured paper with ultrahigh transparency and ultrahigh haze for solar cells.

Solar cell substrates require high optical transparency but also prefer high optical haze to increase the light scattering and consequently the absorption in the active materials. Unfortunately, there is a trade-off between these optical properties, which is exemplified by common transparent paper substrates exhibiting a transparency of about 90% yet a low optical haze (<20%). In this work, we introduce a novel transparent paper made of wood fibers that displays both ultrahigh optical transparency (∼ 96%) and ultrahigh haze (∼ 60%), thus delivering an optimal substrate design for solar cell devices. Compared to previously demonstrated nanopaper composed of wood-based cellulose nanofibers, our novel transparent paper has better dual performance in transmittance and haze but also is fabricated at a much lower cost. This high-performance, low-cost transparent paper is a potentially revolutionary material that may influence a new generation of environmentally friendly printed electronics.

Transparent nanopaper with tailored optical properties.

Nanopaper is a flexible, transparent, and renewable substrate that is emerging as a replacement for plastic in printed "green" electronics. The underlying science of transparency of nanopaper is that the diameter of these fibers is much smaller than the light wavelength, which significantly decreases the light scattering as compared to regular fibers. Cellulose fibers have a hierarchical structure, which consists of numerous smaller fibers. In this manuscript, we demonstrate a nanopaper design with different fiber diameters, and conclude that the light transmittance and scattering depend on the fiber diameter and packing density. The optical properties of the nanopaper and their dependence on the cellulose fiber diameter are thoroughly explained through Chandrasekhar's radiative-transfer theory and multiple scattering method simulations. The controllable optical properties of highly transparent nanopaper present an unprecedented opportunity for growth of next-generation optoelectronics.

Highly transparent and flexible nanopaper transistors.

Renewable and clean "green" electronics based on paper substrates is an emerging field with intensifying research and commercial interests, as the technology combines the unique properties of flexibility, cost efficiency, recyclability, and renewability with the lightweight nature of paper. Because of its excellent optical transmittance and low surface roughness, nanopaper can host many types of electronics that are not possible on regular paper. However, there can be tremendous challenges with integrating devices on nanopaper due to its shape stability during processing. Here we demonstrate for the first time that flexible organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) with high transparency can be fabricated on tailored nanopapers. Useful electrical characteristics and an excellent mechanical flexibility were observed. It is believed that the large binding energy between polymer dielectric and cellulose nanopaper, and the effective stress release from the fibrous substrate promote these beneficial properties. Only a 10% decrease in mobility was observed when the nanopaper transistors were bent and folded. The nanopaper transistor also showed excellent optical transmittance up to 83.5%. The device configuration can transform many semiconductor materials for use in flexible green electronics.