Cellulose based photonic architectures

Introduction Cellulose is the most abundant polymer on Earth and for centuries has had a wide technological impact in areas such as textile, packaging or knowledge storage. It is biodegradable, biocompatible and possesses... [ view full abstract ]

Introduction

Cellulose is the most abundant polymer on Earth and for centuries has had a wide technological impact in areas such as textile, packaging or knowledge storage. It is biodegradable, biocompatible and possesses excellent mechanical characteristics that have raised the interest of many engineering fields [1]. The versatility of cellulose has opened new venues in advanced materials in electronics, energy or biological applications [2]. Here we introduce a cellulose derivative as an eco-friendly and water developable resist. Furthermore, we revolutionize the field of transient photonics by directly moulding the cellulose itself into flexible photonic and plasmonic architectures.

Methods

We combine cellulose with nanoimprinting lithography (NIL), the most promising method for mass-produced inexpensive nanostructures over large areas and with a very low density of defects [3].

Results and discussion

We fabricated free standing cellulose photonic and plasmonic membranes, illustrating their outstanding performance in several applications such as structural colours, photoluminescence enhancement and as disposable Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering substrates [4]. Furthermore using cellulose as a resist and NIL, we are able to pattern silicon wafers or fabricate metallic nanoparticle arrays using water as the only solvent [5]. Finally we demonstrate herein the fabrication of PMMA and HPC stacks in which one of the two materials can be selectively developed.

References

[1] Hoeng, F. et al. Nanoscale 8, (2016)13131-13154.

[2] Polavarapu, L. et al. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 15 (2013) 5288-5300 .

[3] J. A. Rogers, H. H. Lee, Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford (2009).

[4] A. Espinha et al. Nature Photonics, 12, 343–348 (2018) .

[5] C. Dore, J. Osmond, A. Mihi,  Nanoscale (2018) on press.