Transparent nanopaper with tailored optical properties

作者：Hongli Zhu, Sepideh Parvinian, Colin Preston, Oeyvind Vaaland, Zhichao Ruan, Liangbing Hu · 发表于：Nanoscale · 年份：2013 · DOI：10.1039/c3nr00520h · 被引用次数：257 · 研究领域：Electrowetting and Microfluidic Technologies、Photonic Crystals and Applications、Nanofabrication and Lithography Techniques

Nanopaper is a flexible, transparent, and renewable substrate that is emerging as a replacement for plastic in printed "green" electronics. The underlying science of transparency of nanopaper is that the diameter of these fibers is much smaller than the light wavelength, which significantly decreases the light scattering as compared to regular fibers. Cellulose fibers have a hierarchical structure, which consists of numerous smaller fibers. In this manuscript, we demonstrate a nanopaper design with different fiber diameters, and conclude that the light transmittance and scattering depend on the fiber diameter and packing density. The optical properties of the nanopaper and their dependence on the cellulose fiber diameter are thoroughly explained through Chandrasekhar's radiative-transfer theory and multiple scattering method simulations. The controllable optical properties of highly transparent nanopaper present an unprecedented opportunity for growth of next-generation optoelectronics.