Transparent, smooth, and sustainable cellulose-derived conductive film applied for the flexible electronic device

A high-performance flexible conductive substrate is one of the key components for developing promising wearable devices. Concerning this, a sustainable, flexible, transparent, and conductive cellulose/ZnO/AZO (CZA) film was developed in this study. The cellulose was used as the transparent substrate. The added AZO was as the conductive layer and ZnO functioned as an interface buffer layer. Results showed that the interface buffer layer of ZnO effectively alleviated the intrinsic incompatibility of organic cellulose and inorganic AZO, resulting in the improvement of the performance of CZA film. In compared with the controlled cellulose/AZO (CA) film with 365 ?/sq sheet resistance and 87% transmittance, this CZA film featured a low conductive sheet resistance of 115 ?/sq and high transmittance of 89%, as well as low roughness of 1.85 nm Moreover, the existence of conducive ZnO buffer layer enabled the conductivity of CZA film to be stable under the bending treatment. Herein, a flexible electronic device was successfully prepared with the biomass materials, which would be available by a roll-to-roll production process.

Automated summary

By combining cellulose, ZnO, and AZO, a flexible, transparent, and conductive CZA film with improved performance was successfully developed. The addition of the ZnO buffer layer effectively addressed the compatibility issues between organic and inorganic materials, resulting in enhanced conductivity and transparency.