All 2D Material Printed Diodes and Circuits on Paper for Sustainable Electronics
Alessandro Grillo, Khaled Parvez, Jingjing Wang, Zixing Peng, Aniello Pelella, Chaochao Dun, Jeffrey J. Urban, Antonio Di Bartolomeo, Cinzia Casiraghi
Abstract
High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide Sustainable electronics aim to reduce environmental impact by using ecofriendly materials, energy-efficient manufacturing, and recyclable components. However, existing approaches rely on complex, resource-intensive methods, rare metals, or nanomaterials with limited stability as well as plastic substrates, raising sustainability issues. Solution-processed two-dimensional (2D) materials offer a promising alternative: water-based and biocompatible conductive, semiconductive, and insulating 2D material inks can be produced with scalable techniques and are suitable for the fabrication of fully printed devices on low-cost and biodegradable paper substrates. However, 2D material only and fully printed diodes on paper have not yet been reported. Here, we demonstrate fully inkjet-printed 2D material-based diodes on paper using metal–insulator-semiconductor and metal–insulator–metal–semiconductor architectures. Water-based graphene and MoS 2 inks, prepared by liquid-phase exfoliation, are used for the metallic and insulating films, while electrochemical exfoliation is used to produce the semiconducting MoS 2 ink. The highest forward-to-reverse current ratio obtained is 330 (at ±2 V), while the forward current density is 1 mA/cm 2 (at 1 V), making the diode performance comparable to the best solution-processed diodes reported so far. However, in contrast to previous works, fabrication occurs entirely at room temperature and ambient pressure, without using high-pressure sputtering, thermal evaporation, and any precious metal ink. The devices maintain stable performance under bending up to strain of 4% over 10,000 cycles. Finally, the diodes are successfully integrated with other 2D-material based electrical components to realize fully printed RC circuits, differentiators, integrators, and AC-to-DC converters onto paper, hence demonstrating the suitability of our approach for sustainable and disposable integrated circuits.