High-performance cellulose nanocomposite substrates for printed electronics with end-of-life considerations

Description

The demand for smart wearables in both personal health monitoring and in medical applications is increasing, leading to rising demand for flexible printed electronic devices. Currently, the substrates-of-choice for printed electronic devices are fossil-derived plastic substrates. However, in applications in the medical field, such flexible devices are used in a disposable manner. As the use of these disposable devices increases, the problems related to the handling of the accumulated plastic waste become significant. Hence, there is a need to develop sustainable substrates for printed electronics applications where sustainability is contributed by both the use of renewable cellulosic raw materials and by the end-of-life recovery of materials.
In this work, cellulose nanocomposite films were prepared using cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) and cellulose derivatives to fabricate strong, stretchable, and conformal substrates for printed electronics applications. The films demonstrated excellent printing performance and were suitable for various steps of the electronics component assembly process. An demonstrator device was assembled on the fully bio-based and biodegradable cellulosic film substrate and was successfully tested on human skin. Lastly, we demonstrated that the electronic components and the printed silver ink could be recovered by disintegrating the film in water or through a soil biodegradation process.

Period	9 Sept 2022
Event title	5th International EPNOE Junior Scientist Meeting: EPNOE Junior 2022
Event type	Conference
Location	Aveiro, PortugalShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International