Search

At the beginning of the 20th century, the eclectic artist Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo patented two innovative methods for polychrome printing on fabrics and textiles, giving life to Fortuny fabric production in Venice. The first patent was related to colour application, while the second to a special machine that allows continuous printing using cylindrical rollers. Despite the descriptions, the methodology and materials used remain a secret. In collaboration with the Fortuny Museum in Venice, this research aimed at studying and identifying the different steps of Fortuny printing methodologies. Printing matrices, fabrics and raw materials found in the artist's studio were analysed in a multi-analytical campaign through digital microscopy, X-ray fluorescence (XRF), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy in attenuated total reflectance (FTIR-ATR), μ-Raman spectroscopy and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). Three main pigments were identified in paper samples: ivory black, a copper-based pigment, and a carbon black pigment with ultramarine for blues. The pigments were bound with linseed oil and colophony in varying proportions. Polychrome silk fabrics were dyed with a base colour, and then the coloured patterns were superimposed by continuous printing. Prussian blue was identified as one of the textile inks. Results provided a better understanding of printing methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper gives a brief overview on the recent advances on photonic devices based on carbon materials such as: graphene waveguides or photonic devices on paper or plastic substrates in analogy with carbon based electronic devices. The four building block for electronics are the electrons as carrier's information's vectors, the generators, the cables and the transistors. In the same way, photonics or plasmonics will achieve in the future the capability to do same operations done actually in electronics by using photons or plasmons. Following the same steps as in electronics, new technologies were developed in photonics in order to produce photonic integrated circuits (PIC) first on silicon and more recently on plastic or paper substrates. If we analyze the present achievements we can notice that the already equivalent building blocks for photonics on paper substrates are already done: laser on paper substrate (as signal generators), optical and plasmonic waveguides (as information transport cables), optical and plasmonic transistors, photodetectors based on carbon materials etc. In this paper we present by analogy with electronics the recent advancements on paper and carbon based photonics devices. As for electronics, some of the most important advantages of these materials are that they are mechanically flexible, lightweight, cheap and environmentally friendly. • A briefly overview on technologies and materials for photonics on paper substrates. • State of art on perovskite materials for solar cells, LED and lasers. • State of art on plasmonic modulators based on graphene. • New perspectives for the development of future integrated photonic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]