Flexible, Foldable and Multi-Functional Paper-Based Electronics

Great advances have been made in developing cheap, simple, multi-functional and energy-saving fabrication processes for flexible electronics.¹ Paper, as a flexible, foldable, cost-efficient and mass productive substrate, has shown diverse applications for flexible electronics to meet such demand. Recently, we have successfully demonstrated the first nonvolatile resistive memory using paper as substrates by means of all-printing techniques.² Moreover, we also implemented the algorithm of Origami art into the device design for the flexible optoelectronics, such as photodetector and nanogenerator, taking advantage of the foldability and adaptability of paper substrate. In particular, paper origami triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) using paper as the starting material, with high degree of flexibility, light weight, low cost, and recyclability is presented.³ We believe that these findings will pave a way for future energy harvesting and sensor design, especially for the development of green flexible electronics.