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Writing with ink on a paper and the rapid diagnostics of diseases using paper cartridge, despite their remarkable diversities from application perspective, both involve the motion of a liquid from a source on a porous hydrophilic substrate. Here we bring out a generalization in the pertinent dynamics by appealing to the concerned ensemble-averaged transport with reference to the underlying molecular picture. Our results reveal that notwithstanding the associated complexities and diversities, the resultant liquid transport characteristics on a paper matrix, in a wide variety of applications, resemble universal diffusive dynamics. Agreement with experimental results from diversified applications is generic and validates our unified theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extensive work has been done in order to determine the bulk elastic modulus of isotropic samples from force curves acquired with atomic force microscopy. However, new challenges are encountered given the development of new materials constructed of one-dimensional anisotropic building blocks, such as carbon nanostructured paper. In the present work, we establish a reliable framework to correlate the elastic modulus values obtained by amplitude modulation atomic force microscope force curves, a nanoscopic technique, with that determined by traditional macroscopic tensile testing. In order to do so, several techniques involving image processing, statistical analysis, and simulations are used to find the appropriate path to understand how macroscopic properties arise from anisotropic nanoscale components, and ultimately, being able to calculate the value of bulk elastic modulus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Printing electronics has led to application areas which were formerly impossible with conventional electronic processes. Solutions are used as inks on top of large areas at room temperatures, allowing the production of fully flexible circuitry. Commonly, research in these inks have focused on organic and metal-oxide ink materials due to their printability, while these materials lack in the electronic performance when compared to silicon electronics. Silicon electronics, on the other hand, has only recently found their way in solution processes. Printing of cyclopentasilane as the silicon ink has been conducted and devices with far superior electric performance have been made when compared to other ink materials. A thermal annealing step of this material, however, was necessary, which prevented its usage on inexpensive substrates with a limited thermal budget. In this work, we introduce a method that allows polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) production directly from the same liquid silicon ink using excimer laser irradiation. In this way, poly-Si could be formed directly on top of paper even with a single laser pulse. Using this method, poly-Si transistors were created at a maximum temperature of only 150 °C. This method allows silicon device formation on inexpensive, temperature sensitive substrates such as polyethylene terephthalate, polyethylene naphthalate or paper, which leads to applications that require low-cost but high-speed electronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presently, we contemplate the merger of paper and electronics in different forms. There is a great desire to further explore this twinning of the information displaying features of printed papers and electronic inks. Here, we report a full-color paperboard display technology comprised of thermochromic and static inks combined with a patterned heater foil. Black and full-color thermochromic ink dots were screen-printed adjacent to, and on top of, static ink dots using a zero-angle mesh and template pattern orientation. As the heater is turned on and off, the display alter its content in between two predefined four-color pictures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]