A simple and industrially scalable method for making a PANI-modified cellulose touch sensor.

A simple and industrially scalable method for making a PANI-modified cellulose touch sensor. Ragazzini a, I. Gualandi a, *, S. Selli b, C. Polizzi a, M.C. Cassani a, D. Nanni a, F. Gambassi a, F. Tarterini a, D. Tonelli a, E. Scavetta a, B. Ballarin a, * a Department of Industrial Chemistry “Toso Montanari”, Bologna University, Viale Risorgimento 4, I-40136, Bologna, Italy; b Cromatos s.r.l., via G. Cardano, 6B/C/D, 47122, Forlì, Italy Nowadays, alternatives to the traditional electronics that should be low cost, degradable, compostable and made from environmentally nontoxic substances are of great interest in research. As candidate, we propose bare fibers of cellulose made conductive by an in situ oxidative polymerization of aniline. The resulting composite fibers were emplojed to fabricate electroactive sheets using a pilot plant of a typical paper industry. The resistivity of the obtained sheets is 14 ± 1 Ω sq-1, a value around 1000 times lower than those reported in literature. The higher electronic performances of the sheets were demonstrated by assembling a capacitive touch sensor device with optimized geometry. The touch sensor shows an increase of 3–4 % of the starting electric capacity after compression and a fast response time of 52 ms. To our knowledge this is the first time that a device is prepared in this way and therefore, the herein presented results can bring a significant improvement in the development of low-cost, green and high-tech electronic devices 1. [1] Ragazzini, I. et al. A simple and industrially scalable method for making a PANI-modified cellulose touch sensor. Carbohydr. Polym. (2020) doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.117304.