Paper-based triboelectric nanogenerators and their applications: a review

The development of industry and of the Internet of Things (IoTs) have brought energy issues and huge challenges to the environment. The emergence of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) has attracted wide attention due to their advantages, such as self-powering, lightweight, and facile fabrication. Similarly to paper and other fiber-based materials, which are biocompatible, biodegradable, environmentally friendly, and are everywhere in daily life, paper-based TENGs (P-TENGs) have shown great potential for various energy harvesting and interactive applications. Here, a detailed summary of P-TENGs with two-dimensional patterns and three-dimensional structures is reported. P-TENGs have the potential to be used in many practical applications, including self-powered sensing devices, human–machine interaction, electrochemistry, and highly efficient energy harvesting devices. This leads to a simple yet effective way for the next generation of energy devices and paper electronics.

Inks for sustainable paper electronics

Sustainability has become a necessity in the electronics industry. Saralon GmbH (Chemnitz, Germany) introduces its latest inks with this purpose in mind

Characterization of drop-casted graphene/cellulose thin film on printing paper substrate

Paper electronics is an emerging technology to implement flexible and wearable electronics devices via ink printing process. This paper evaluates the feasibility of using conventional printing paper for coating process with graphene/cellulose ink. 4 different types of regularly used conventional printing papers were used as substrates in this work. The conductive graphene ink was prepared through exfoliation of graphite in cellulose solution. The paper substrates surface morphology and sheet resistance of the drop-casted conductive ink on each paper were analyzed and discussed. Glossy paper was found to be suitable paper substrate for the printing of the formulated ink due to its low surface roughness of 16 nm. The value of sheet resistance of the graphene/cellulose thin film can be lowered to 4.11 kΩ/sq by applying multiple drops. This work suggests that conventional printing paper may offer solution for highly scalable and low-cost paper electronics.