Flexible Touch Pad on Paper and Cloth by Blue Diode Ablated Laser Induced Graphene

Abstract

In recent year, Graphene has witnessed an increasing demand in diversified domains including in realizing various electronic devices due to its unique electrical and mechanical properties. In place of the conventional cumbersome approaches, recently CO2 laser induced graphene (LIG) on various substrates, like polymers, paper, cloth, have become a reliable alternative to fabricate such devices. Even though, development of LIG zones on diverse substrate and their optimization and implementation has been reported, a process to manifest single-step, cost-effective and scalabel LIG based flexible electronic devices remains a challenge. Herein, a novel process has been demonstrated for fabricating LIG based flexible electronic device on paper and cloth using a low-power blue laser. First, a porous filter paper and a cotton cloth were soaked in liquid polyimide and phenolic resin-polyvinyl alcohol (PR-PVA) respectively. Subsequently, a 3D printer, loaded with a 2.8 W blue laser diode, was appropriately ablated to form paper-based LIG (P-LIG) and cloth-based LIG (C-LIG), with desired designs and conductivity values. P-LIG and C-LIG zones provide optimum conductivity values of 198.54 S/m and 22.23 S/m respectively. Finally, P-LIG and C-LIG were integrated with the capacitive touch sensor and microcontroller modules, and display, to employ both the devices as flexible touch sensors.