Engineers made first fully printable and recyclable electronic circuits on paper with cocktail of carbon based ink.
Sreedhu S S
credits: Duke University
Engineers made first fully printable and recyclable electronic circuits on paper with cocktail of carbon based ink. So, it can be decomposed and again printed with a high performance life of 2 months. By this way, the amount of electronic waste in environment can be reduced. The usage of electronics and electronic products are increasing. People want more data and more sensors in various fields. Eco-friendly and quality electronic products in low cost can be achieved through this technique. But they still creates silicon and other wastes.
The major, advance is researchers' new insulator ink. For the making, they used nanocellulose, an abundant, biodegradable material made from wood pulp. These are usually used for food packaging, cosmetics and wood products, and sheets of it are also used in electronics as an insulator.
Using a machine, Franklin electrical and computer Engineering professor at Duke University, the advanced in Nature Electronics, describes as an advanced version of a common inkjet printer, the team put three inks on paper one layer at a time to make transistors. The machine vaporizes the ink into a fine mist of microscopic droplets and guides this aerosol on surface of the paper using an inert gas.
The basic technique could be transferred to faster roll to roll printing, which could produce many more devices rapidly.
Recycling process includes, series of baths and use of sound waves to vibrate them as to separate all the components. By filtration, the carbon nanotubes and graphene can be removed. The nanocellulose and paper substrate then recycled separately.
It's incredibly promising what these devices can do.- Franklin
The rise of these kind of technologies will surely make the electronic fields more impressive.