Nanocomposite of nanocellulose with metal nanoparticles for printable and flexible electronics

Cellulose paper-based electronics have attracted considerable attention because of their inexpensive, renewable, and eco-friendly substrates. A variety of paper-based flexible devices have been proposed based on several attractive characteristics of cellulose paper, such as chemical stability, mechanical strength, biodegradability, functionality, and permeability. Nanocellulose is a new class of paper that possesses the capacity to be a low-cost renewable material source and has demonstrated interesting potential application in flexible devices in recent years. Nanocelluloses can be categorized into two types: cellulose nanofibers and cellulose nanocrystals. By controlling nanosized cellulose fibril morphology, the nanocellulose-based paper exhibits a smooth surface as the nanosized fibrils are arrayed uniformly on the surface. This inherent property of nanocellulose-based paper is the most important requirement for printed electronics applications. In addition, the high thermal stability of nanocellulose-based paper is also attractive due to the heating process involved (∼150–250 °C) during the fabrication of conductive patterns on the substrates with metal-based inks. In this chapter, we describe nanocomposite of nanocellulose with metal nanoparticles to be used for printable and flexible electronics. This comprises four sections: (1) nanocellulose, (2) nanocomposite of metal nanoparticles with nanocellulose, (3) nanocellulose as a substrate for printed electronics, and (4) nanocellulose for flexible electronics devices.