Direct Femtosecond Laser Printing of PPV on Bacterial Cellulose-Based Paper for Flexible Organic Devices

Cellulose-based flexible electronics has prompted as an interesting approach for the development of novel technologies, given its unique properties. Standard printing methods, however, limit the materials to be transferred, as well as the resolution of the patterns. In this paper the use of femtosecond laser induced forward transfer is demonstrated, for creating high-resolution patterns of the conductive poly(p-phenylene vinylene) (PPV), an advanced material that presents outstanding electrical properties, on bacterial cellulose (BC) substrate. Such an approach successfully allows transferring PPV with a resolution on the order of 10 µm and without the material’s degradation, which is subsequently doped to increase the electrical conductivity. Therefore, results presented herein open new avenues in the fabrication of paper-based devices, by combining high resolution and new classes of patterning materials.