Super-Clear Nanopaper from Agro-Industrial Waste for Green Electronics

Due to high volumes of production from the consumer electronics industry, it is highly desirable to develop green electronics comprised of biodegradable components derived from cheap resources or even agro-industrial wastes. In this work, a facile and benign production route is proposed to transform the agro-industrial waste sugarcane bagasse into value-added super-clear nanopaper for flexible and transparent electronics. High-value cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are isolated from abundant and inexpensive sugarcane bagasse by a one-step 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl treatment, and the obtained CNCs are then used to fabricate a super-clear nanopaper substrate for next-generation flexible electronics. The super-clear nanopaper exhibits superior optical properties (91% transmittance and 1.4% transmission haze at 600 nm), excellent nanometer-scale surface roughness (3.08 nm), and good oxygen barrier properties (1.2 cm3 µm (m2 day kPa)−1 at 50% relative humidity). Moreover, proof-of-concept field-effect transistors with an on/off ratio of >103 are demonstrated on this super-clear nanopaper. The efficient and scalable production of value-added CNCs from bagasse waste coupled with advanced applications of CNC-based super-clear nanopaper in electronic devices presents a solution for the conversion of agricultural wastes to value-added electronic applications, which is beneficial for green electronics and recycling and ecoindustries.