Cellulose electro-active paper: Actuator, sensor and beyond

Recently, cellulose has been discovered as a smart material that can be used as sensors and actuators. This newly discovered material is termed as electro-active paper (EAPap) that has merits in terms of lightweight, flexible, dryness, biodegradable, biocompatible, easy to chemically modify, cheap and abundance. The actuation principle of cellulose EAPap bending actuator is known to be a combination of piezoelectric effect and ion migration effect. This paper presents further investigation of cellulose EAPap for its possibilities in biomimetic actuator, sensor, MEMS, acoustic devices and others. Biomimetic actuator is made with cellulose EAPap by fabricating rectifying antenna (rectenna) array on it. Cellulose EAPap material is customized to satisfy the material requirement for actuators and other devices. The material improvement all about cellulose EAPap is introduced. To fabricate the rectenna array, micro patterning of metallic layer in conjunction with Schottky diode fabrication on the cellulose was made. The Schottky diode fabrication allows possibility of thin film transistor fabricated on a cellulose paper. Microwave power transmission is demonstrated by using rectenna arrays, which can be used for many applications. Some of the device fabrication along with brief demonstrations is illustrated.