Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD, 20742, USA
Received 17 March 2017, Revised 30 April 2017, Accepted 30 April 2017, Available online 1 May 2017.
Highlights
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A simple yet efficient “top-down” method for fabricating anisotropic transparent paper directly from wood was developed.
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The wood-derived paper has anisotropic microstructures and light scattering due to the well-aligned cellulose fibers.
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The anisotropic paper possesses both high transparency and high haze, enabling its utilization in GaAs solar cells.
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The “top-down” approach for preparing anisotropic transparent paper is facile, scalable, cost-effective and “green”.
Abstract
The growing demand for flexible electronics and solar energy conversion devices has fueled a search for high-quality paper-based materials with excellent mechanical flexibility and optical properties such as high transparency and haze. Despite the tremendous efforts have been dedicated to developing paper-based materials with high transparency or high haze, challenges still remain in achieving both due to the general exclusivity between them. Here, for the first time, we develop a novel anisotropic paper material possessing high mechanical flexibility and fantastic optical properties with both high transmittance (~90%) and high haze (~90%) simultaneously via a simple yet effective “top-down” approach by directly shear pressing the delignified wood material. The anisotropic transparent paper demonstrates a high efficiency as a light management coating layer for GaAs solar cell with a significant efficiency enhancement of 14% due to its excellent light management capability with both high transparency and high haze. The presented “top-down” approach is facile, scalable, cost-effective and “green”, representing a promising direction for developing flexible electronics, solar energy conversion devices and beyond.
Graphical abstract
We demonstrated a highly simple yet efficient “top-down” method for fabricating anisotropic transparent paper by directly shear pressing the delignified wood. The anisotropic paper with both high transmittance of ~90% and high haze of ~90% can be used as a light management coating layer to significantly improve the energy conversion efficiency of GaAs solar cells.
Chao Jia received the B.S. degree in Packaging Engineering from Agricultural University of Hebei, Hebei, China in 2010. He obtained the M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Jiangnan University, Jiangsu, China in 2013. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Materials Science and Engineering at Beijing Institute of Technology. From 2015 to 2017, he is an exchange Ph.D. student under the supervision of Prof. Liangbing Hu at University of Maryland College Park. His research interests include flexible electronics, nanomaterials and energy conversion.
Tian Li received the B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei, China in 2010, and Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of Maryland, College Park, USA, in 2015. She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Scholar with Dr. Liangbing Hu in University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA. Her research interests include light and thermal energy harvesting and management. She received the ECE Distinguished Dissertation Fellowship and Outstanding Graduate Assistant Award in 2015 for the recognition of her Ph.D. work.
Chaoji Chen received his B.S. (2010) and Ph.D (2015) degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), P.R.China. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher in HUST. His research focuses on nanomaterials for energy storage and water treatment.
Jiaqi Dai received his B.S degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology (2013), China. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in materials engineering under the supervision of Prof. Liangbing Hu at University of Maryland, College Park, USA. His research mainly focus on nanotechnologies, advanced energy storage devices, and scientific visualizations.
Iain M. Kierzewski received the B.S. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Maryland (UMD), College Park, in 2012. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering at UMD. Since 2013, he has been a process engineer at the Adelphi Lab Center working on MEMS power components. His research interests include magnetic, electronic, and bio-inspired materials for energy harvesting applications.
Jianwei Song is now a Ph.D. candidate in School of Light Industry and Engineering at South China University of Technology, and is currently an exchange Ph.D. Candidate in Department of Materials Science and Engineering at University of Maryland. His current research focuses on biomass for functional and structural materials.
Yiju Li received his B.S. degree from Harbin Engineering University in 2013. He is currently an exchange Ph.D. student in University of Maryland, College Park. His research focuses on nanomaterials for electrochemical energy storage and conversion.
Chunpeng Yang received his Ph.D. degree from University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2016 and B.S. degree from University of Science and Technology of China in 2011. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Liangbing Hu in University of Maryland at College Park. His research focuses on materials for advanced energy-storage systems, such as lithium metal batteries and solid-state batteries.
Chengwei Wang received his B.S. (2011) from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), P.R.China and Ph.D (2015) from Arizona State University in Materials Science and Engineering. He is currently an Assistant Research Scientist at Maryland University, College Park. His research focuses on solid state batteries and nanomaterials for ionic devices.
Liangbing Hu received his B.S. in applied physics from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 2002. He did his Ph.D. at UCLA, focusing on carbon nanotube based nanoelectronics. In 2006, he joined Unidym Inc as a co-founding scientist. He worked at Stanford University from 2009 to 2011, where he work on various energy devices based on nanomaterials and nanostructures. Currently, he is an associate professor at University of Maryland College Park. His research interests include nanomaterials and nanostructures, flexible and printed electronics, energy storage and conversion, and roll-to-roll nanomanufacturing.
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