Nanofibers based on polymers for energy harvesting and smart labels

Nanofibers based on polymers are widely used in different fields, including cosmetics, electronics, sensing, medicine, phtonics, energy and filtration. These materials have a 1D character and exhibit tailorable physico-chemical properties which enables their use in multifunctional devices. They are characterized by properties such as, high surface to volume ratio, large area coverage and low-cost manufacturing which makes their use already widespread in industry. Here I report on our research on nanofibers made by spinning technologies assisted by electric fields, which exhibits photonic functions and energy harvesting/sensing capabilities1. An additional exploited application relies on their use as photoprogrammable material, based on an epoxy-based negative photoresist. Intelligent, flexible, paper-based labels, capable to operate by visual contrast and indicate inappropriate time-temperature exposure of perishable food and drugs are demonstrated2. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (Grant Agreement no. 682157, “xPRINT”) and the Italian Minister of University and Research PRIN 2017PHRM8X and 20173L7W8K projects. References 1 L. Persano et al., Advanced Materials 2017, 29, 1701031, 10.1002/adma.201701031. 2 L. Romano et al. Nature Communications 2020, 11, 5991, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19676-y.