April 7 - 11, 2025
Seattle, Washington
Symposium Supporters
2025 MRS Spring Meeting & Exhibit
SU06.07.04

Influence of Water on Printed Nanocellulose Dielectric Performance

When and Where

Apr 9, 2025
10:45am - 11:00am
Summit, Level 4, Room 448

Presenter(s)

Co-Author(s)

Brittany Smith1,Xuancheng Pei1,Nicolas Chen1,Aaron Franklin1

Duke University1

Abstract

Brittany Smith1,Xuancheng Pei1,Nicolas Chen1,Aaron Franklin1

Duke University1
Printed flexible electronics show promise for providing a sustainable solution to the increasingly negative impact of electronics manufacturing and waste. However, current print processes and inks tend to rely on hazardous solvents, extensive post-processing at high temperatures, and/or materials that are not recyclable or biodegradable. Of the printed electronic materials, the most difficult to print using sustainable materials is the dielectric layer due to challenges including pin-hole formation and dependence on high processing temperatures. Recent work on biodegradable, water-based nanocellulose ink shows promise for use as the gate dielectric in carbon nanotube thin-film transistors (CNT-TFTs) since nanocellulose performs as an ionic dielectric. However, mechanisms governing the ionic nature of the printed nanocellulose are unclear and make it difficult to design nanocellulose inks for specific applications. In this work, we investigated the impact of water purity and relative humidity on nanocellulose dielectric performance. We found that water purity does alter the nanocellulose capacitance, reducing the capacitance significantly at lower frequencies. Further, the capacitance of the dielectric decreased with reduced relative humidity. This highlights the role of water as the medium through which ions move to form the electric double layers in printed nanocellulose films. After isolating the function of water in the dielectric performance of nanocellulose, we were also able to measure the impact of form and surface group on dielectric performance. For this study, we developed inks and aerosol jet printing processes for crystalline nanocellulose (CNC) and cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) with various surface groups. Our results reveal that the general ionic nature of the printed films is invariant with the nanostructure form or surface group. When using ultrapure water, there is a noticeable difference in capacitance due to surface groups including a dependence on the degree of sulfonation. Uncovering why nanocellulose functions as an ionic dielectric will allow for a continued improvement in nanocellulose and other biodegradable biopolymer dielectric films for use in printed electronics.

Keywords

additive manufacturing

Symposium Organizers

Alex Chortos, Purdue University
Helen Tran, University of Toronto
Clementine Boutry, TU Delft
Giuseppe Barillaro, University of Pisa

Session Chairs

Giuseppe Barillaro
Alex Chortos

In this Session