Chemical Modification of Cellulose Nanofibers for the Production of Highly Thermal Resistant and Optically Transparent Nanopaper for Paper Devices

Optically transparent cellulose nanopaper is one of the best candidate substrates for flexible electronics. Some types of cellulose nanopaper are made of mechanically or chemically modified cellulose nanofibers. Among these, nanopapers produced from chemically modified cellulose nanofibers are the most promising substrate because of their lower power consumption during fabrication and higher optical transparency (lower haze). However, because their thermal durability is as low as plastics, paper devices using chemically modified nanopaper often do not have sufficiently high performance. In this study, by decreasing the carboxylate content in the cellulose nanofibers, the thermal durability of chemically modified nanopaper was drastically improved while maintaining high optical transparency, low coefficient of thermal expansion, and low power consumption during fabrication. As a result, light-emitting diode lights illuminated on the chemically modified nanopaper via highly conductive lines, which were obtained by printing silver nanoparticle inks and high-temperature heating.