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We combine biodegradable plastic (polyvinyl alcohol/glycerol polymer), and cellulose-based tissue paper in a very short time (5 s) by a facile way to form a new matrix, named plastic-paper, which has high optical transmittance (~ 89%) and high optical haze (~ 90%) in broadband. Results showed that the plastic-paper is durable in different solvents, with high folding strength (over 3500 folding times) and good mechanical strength (> 30 MPa tensile strength). Interestingly, the plastic-paper presents a two-sidedness of surface morphology. The smooth side shows high light transmittance and the rough side presents high optical haze. The smooth side of the plastic-paper is successfully applied to Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED). When the rough surface of plastic-paper is used in solar cells, the maximum output power increases by 2.6% compared with bare solar cells. The developed plastic-paper with high optical transmittance and high optical haze holds a great potential in flexible optoelectronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flexible-hybrid printed electronics (FHPE) is a rapidly growing discipline that may be described as the precise imprinting of electrically functional traces and components onto a substrate such as paper to create functional electronic devices. The mass production of low-cost devices and components such as environmental sensors, bio-sensors, actuators, lab on chip (LOCs), radio frequency identification (RFID) smart tags, light emitting diodes (LEDs), smart fabrics and labels, wallpaper, solar cells, fuel cells, and batteries are major driving factors for the industry. Using renewable and bio-friendly materials would be advantageous for both manufacturers and consumers with the increased use of (FHPE) electronics in our daily lives. This review article describes recent developments in cellulose and nanocellulose-based materials for FHPE, and the necessary developments required to propagate their use in commercial applications. The aim of these developments is to enable the creation of FHPE devices and components made almost entirely of cellulose materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A simple and scalable method to fabricate a yarn‐type supercapacitor with a large specific capacitance without the aid of traditional pseudocapacitive electrode materials such as conducting polymers and metal oxides is reported. The yarn‐type supercapacitors are made from twisting reduced graphene oxide (rGO) or/and single‐walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs)‐coated Korean traditional paper (KTP). The yarn‐type paper supercapacitor displays surprisingly enhanced electrochemical capacitance values, showing synergistic effect between rGO and SWNTs (500 times larger than performance of yarn‐type rGO‐coated paper supercapacitors). Coating rGO or/and SWNTs on KTP gives good morphology to the composite film, in which porosity increases and mean pore diameter decreases. The yarn‐type rGO/SWNT paper supercapacitor shows good mechanical strength, high flexibility, excellent electrochemical performance, and long‐life operation. The yarn‐type supercapacitor has an excellent electrochemical performance with a specific capacitance of 366 F g−1 at scan rate of 25 mV s−1 and high stability without any degradation in electrical performance up to 10 000 charge–discharge cycles. The average capacitance of rGO/SWNT@KTP yarn‐type supercapacitors is seven times higher than that of sheet‐type supercapacitors at scan rate of 500 mV s−1. The lighting of a red light‐emitting diode (LED) is demonstrated by the yarn‐type paper supercapacitor without connecting supercapacitors in series. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) has aroused considerable interest due to various advantages. Particularly, one benefit which sand out is that the triboelectric pair of TENG is very tolerant to the material composition. Thus, it is possible and significant to develop cost-effective TENG using commercial and inexpensive material. In this work, we present a paper TENG by repeated folding completely using commercially available commodity materials, such as paper, brush pen, Teflon tape, and conductive ink. Paper is used as functionally triboelectric pair and spring-like supporting structure. The stacked paper TENG is fabricated and large enhancement of output performance is observed. The generated electric outputs have been used to directly light-up commercial LEDs. The proposed TENG has demonstrated simplicity and cost-effective, which is suitable for flexible electronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The utility of strikingly simple and cheap optoelectronic detectors operating according to a Paired-Emitter-Detector-Diode (PEDD) principle for microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (μPAD) has been experimentally confirmed. The prototypes of these compact detectors have been made of only two customary light emitting diodes without any additional optical parts like lens, filters, fibers etc. Moreover, for their operation economic and portable equipment is required (low-power circuit and ordinary voltmeter). Photometric and fluorometric PEDDs for paper devices are developed. In both cases the possibility of their applicability in transmittance and reflectance modes of measurements are presented. In these investigations as model analytes some coloured and fluorescence substances have been handled, but the utility of several developed systems for real chemical analysis has also been demonstrated. The results of photometric determination of hemoglobin in human blood, as well as fluorometric determination of quinine in tonics and calcium ions in mineral waters using various PEDD-μPAD systems have been shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple and scalable direct laser machining process to fabricate MXene-on-paper coplanar microsupercapacitors is reported. Commercially available printing paper is employed as a platform in order to coat either hydrofluoric acid-etched or clay-like 2D Ti3C2 MXene sheets, followed by laser machining to fabricate thick-film MXene coplanar electrodes over a large area. The size, morphology, and conductivity of the 2D MXene sheets are found to strongly affect the electrochemical performance due to the efficiency of the ion-electron kinetics within the layered MXene sheets. The areal performance metrics of Ti3C2 MXene-on-paper microsupercapacitors show very competitive power-energy densities, comparable to the reported state-of-the-art paper-based microsupercapacitors. Various device architectures are fabricated using the MXene-on-paper electrodes and successfully demonstrated as a micropower source for light emitting diodes. The MXene-on-paper electrodes show promise for flexible on-paper energy storage devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper microfluidics is used to produce single layer galvanic and hybrid cells to produce energy that could power paper-based analytical sensors. When two aqueous streams are absorbed onto paper to establish co-laminar flow, the streams stay in contact with each other with limited mixing. The interface at which mixing occurs acts as a charge-transfer region, eliminating the need for a salt bridge. We designed a Cu Zn galvanic cell that powers an LED when two are placed in series. We also used more powerful redox couples (formate and silver, formate and permanganate) to produce higher power density (18 and 3.1 mW mg −1 Pd). These power densities are greater than previously reported paper microfluidic fuel cells using formate or methanol. The single layer design is much more simplified than previous reports of multi-layer galvanic cells on paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ZnO-organic hybrid white-light-emitting diodes (WLEDs) were demonstrated on a paper substrate. The configuration used for ZnO-organic hybrid WLEDs consists a layer of poly (9,9)-(dioctylfluorene) (PFO) on poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) poly (styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT: PSS) on n-type ZnO nanorods grown by a low-temperature chemical aqueous method on paper substrate. Room temperature photoluminescence, electroluminescence, and cathodoluminescence (CL) spectra reveal a broad visible region covering the range from 420 to 800 nm. By using room temperature-CL, we got luminescence information, especially to verify the origin of specific emissions, the internal absorption of the ultraviolet and the spatial distribution of radiative defects. It was observed that the visible wavelength range depends on the penetration depth of the excitation. This suggests that the concentration of deep levels responsible for the visible luminescence is at the sample surface to a depth of 1-2 µm when using an accelerating voltage up to 20-30 kV. The results indicate that demonstration of WLEDs on paper substrate with reasonable electrical performance greatly influences the reduction of substrate cost, furthermore, this may open way to fabricate optoelectronics devices on disposable substrates for large-area applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on an experiment for the analysis of microbial activity in topsoil. It is stated that topsoil is the topmost layer of soil, which contains large amounts of bacteria and other microorganisms, that make the soil rich in nutrients to be used by plants. The microorganisms include bacteria, viruses, fungi, algae, and protozoa. In the experiment, qualitative analysis of microbial activities in topsoil is done by using white copy paper and a handmade cadmium sulfide-light emitting diode (CdS-LED) reflection photometer. White paper sheets are dipped in a soil solution, and treated with iodine, which results in a blue color. The depth of the blue color is measured by using the handmade reflection photometer.