<br/>Cellulose is a wood-based material with a broad range of beneficial properties: It is lightweight, transparent, flexible and recyclable. Therefore, cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) can be used as carrier material for sustainable thin-film applications such as organic photovoltaics.<br/>Spray deposition is a fast and easy-to-implement technique to apply small structures such as nanowires and fibers on a large scale and thus to implement homogeneous nanostructured thin films and layered multi-component systems. Thin films of CNF were fabricated and functionalized via spray deposition with for possible energy applications: Conductive silver nanowires as electrode, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) as blocking layer and a mixture of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methylester (PCBM) as a photoactive layer. The deposition of these materials on CNF was studied in situ with grazing incidence X-ray scattering. Important insights into the influence of different spraying-conditions, the arrangement of the nanostructures on the CNF surface, and the interactions between CNF and the functional materials could be gained.

The functionalization of thin CNF films via spraying for energy applications

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.