Electrical paper material developed

Swedish scientists have developed a paper-like material with the ability to store electricity.

A sheet of the power paper – 15cm x 0.5mm thick – can stop 1 farad of electrical capacitance, similar to current supercapacitors on the market, claim the scientists. The material is made from nanocellulose and a conductive polymer.

Xavier Crispin, a researcher from Linköping University's Laboratory of Organic Electronics, said: “Thin films that function as capacitors have existed for some time. What we have done is to produce the material in three dimensions. We can produce thick sheets.”

The electrical material was created by breaking cellulose fibres with high pressure water, before being added to a water solution containing an electrical charged polymer which forms a thin coating over the nanocellulose.

Jesper Edberg, doctoral student, said: “The covered fibres are in tangles, where the liquid in the spaces between them functions as an electrolyte.”

The power paper was able to be folded into a variety of shapes, including an origami swan. It can be recharged hundreds of times and each charge takes a few seconds, claim researchers. The material requires no dangerous chemicals for production and is waterproof. It has also set a new world record in simultaneous conductivity for ions and electrons.

The power paper is constructed in exactly the same way as normal paper, creating pulp then undergoing dehydration to remove any water.  The next step is to develop an industrial scale process to create the power paper.

Professor Berggren, director of the Laboratory of Organic Electronics at Linköping University, said: “Together with KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Acreo and Innventia we just received 34 million Swedish krona from the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research to continue our efforts to develop a rational production method, a paper machine for power paper.”

The study was published in Advanced Science.