Laser-Induced Molybdenum Carbide-Graphene Composites for 3D Foldable Paper Electronics

Xining Zang; Caiwei Shen; Yao Chu; Buxuan Li; Minsong Wei; Junwen Zhong; Mohan Sanghadasa; Liwei Lin

doi:10.1002/adma.201800062

Laser-Induced Molybdenum Carbide-Graphene Composites for 3D Foldable Paper Electronics

Adv Mater. 2018 Jun;30(26):e1800062. doi: 10.1002/adma.201800062. Epub 2018 May 15.

Authors

Xining Zang^{1

2}, Caiwei Shen^{1

2}, Yao Chu³, Buxuan Li^{1

2}, Minsong Wei^{1

2}, Junwen Zhong^{1

2}, Mohan Sanghadasa⁴, Liwei Lin^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Mechanical Engineering, University of California Berkley, Berkeley, CA, 94704, USA.
² Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center, Berkeley, CA, 94704, USA.
³ Tsinghua Berkeley Shenzhen Institute, Shenzhen, 518055, China.
⁴ Aviation and Missile Research, Development, and Engineering Center, US Army, Redstone Arsenal, AL, 35898, USA.

PMID: 29761564
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201800062

Abstract

Versatile and low-cost manufacturing processes/materials are essential for the development of paper electronics. Here, a direct-write laser patterning process is developed to make conductive molybdenum carbide-graphene (MCG) composites directly on paper substrates. The hierarchically porous MCG structures are converted from fibrous paper soaked with the gelatin-mediated inks containing molybdenum ions. The resulting Mo₃ C₂ and graphene composites are mechanically stable and electrochemically active for various potential applications, such as electrochemical ion detectors and gas sensors, energy harvesters, and supercapacitors. Experimentally, the electrical conductivity of the composite is resilient to mechanical deformation with less than 5% degradation after 750 cycles of 180° repeated folding tests. As such, the direct laser conversion of MCGs on papers can be applicable for paper-based electronics, including the 3D origami folding structures.

Keywords: lasers; molybdenum carbides; paper electronics; sensors; supercapacitors.