TY - JOUR
T1 - Biodegradable Cellulose Nanocomposite Substrate for Recyclable Flexible Printed Electronics
AU - Jaiswal, Aayush Kumar
AU - Kumar, Vinay
AU - Jansson, Elina
AU - Huttunen, Olli-Heikki
AU - Yamamoto, Akio
AU - Vikman, Minna
AU - Khakalo, Alexey
AU - Hiltunen, Jussi
AU - Behfar, Mohammadhossein
N1 - Funding Information:
The experimental plan with volunteer was approved by the Ethical Committee of VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. The ECG recording was performed with the informed consent of the participant and the results were published with the consent of the participant. Complete data privacy of the participant was ensured. The authors acknowledge Veikko Ikonen for the help with the ethical approval process. The authors are grateful to Pentti Korhonen for helping with the CAD designs, Minna Kehusmaa for assisting with printing characterization, Antti Veijola for the electronics component assembly, Katariina Solin for AFM imaging, and Dung Nguyen for the software application for logging of ECG data. The technical assistance of Tuomo Mäkelä and Niina Torttila in biodegradation studies are also acknowledged. Atte Mikkelson is thanked for performing elemental analysis. Last, The authors acknowledge the provision of facilities and technical support by Aalto University at OtaNano‐ Nanomicroscopy Center (Aalto‐NMC). This entire work was funded by the internal funding instrument iBEX at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. Advanced Electronic Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.
PY - 2023/1/29
Y1 - 2023/1/29
N2 - Printed, flexible, and hybrid electronic technologies are advancing rapidly leading to remarkable developments in smart wearables, intelligent textiles, and health monitoring systems. Flexible electronics are typically fabricated on petroleum-derived polymeric substrates. However, in the light of global environmental concerns regarding fossil raw materials, there is a need to drive the production of flexible electronics devices based on sustainable materials. Additionally, there is a need to reduce the quantity of electronic waste by developing material recovery and recycling technologies. Here, a fully biobased and biodegradable substrate tailored for printed flexible electronic applications is developed. Based on a nanocomposite of cellulose nanofibril (CNF) and hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC), the substrate shows excellent mechanical and optical properties for printed flexible electronics applications. High-resolution screen printing of conductive ink and typical electronics assembly processes are possible to realize on the substrate. An electrocardiograph (ECG) device is fabricated on the cellulosic substrate as a technology demonstrator and its performance is confirmed on human volunteers. Last, end-of-life scenarios are studied for printed electronic devices where device degradation and subsequent material recovery concepts are presented. This work demonstrates that sustainable plant-derived materials can play a big role toward a green transition in the electronics industry.
AB - Printed, flexible, and hybrid electronic technologies are advancing rapidly leading to remarkable developments in smart wearables, intelligent textiles, and health monitoring systems. Flexible electronics are typically fabricated on petroleum-derived polymeric substrates. However, in the light of global environmental concerns regarding fossil raw materials, there is a need to drive the production of flexible electronics devices based on sustainable materials. Additionally, there is a need to reduce the quantity of electronic waste by developing material recovery and recycling technologies. Here, a fully biobased and biodegradable substrate tailored for printed flexible electronic applications is developed. Based on a nanocomposite of cellulose nanofibril (CNF) and hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC), the substrate shows excellent mechanical and optical properties for printed flexible electronics applications. High-resolution screen printing of conductive ink and typical electronics assembly processes are possible to realize on the substrate. An electrocardiograph (ECG) device is fabricated on the cellulosic substrate as a technology demonstrator and its performance is confirmed on human volunteers. Last, end-of-life scenarios are studied for printed electronic devices where device degradation and subsequent material recovery concepts are presented. This work demonstrates that sustainable plant-derived materials can play a big role toward a green transition in the electronics industry.
KW - printed electronics
KW - cellulose
KW - nanocellulose
KW - Nanocomposite films
KW - biomaterials
KW - biobased products
KW - biocomposite films
KW - flexible devices
KW - sustainability
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85147342978&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/aelm.202201094
DO - 10.1002/aelm.202201094
M3 - Article
SN - 2199-160X
JO - Advanced Electronic Materials
JF - Advanced Electronic Materials
M1 - 2201094
ER -
