A new nature-inspired circuit board design could dramatically reduce e-waste and offer a more sustainable path for the electronics industry.
Researchers at the Dresden University of Technology have shared their innovative "Leaftronics" design for making biodegradable and printable circuit boards, which could revolutionize how electronics are made, as Tech Xplore reported.
The team, led by Prof. Karl Leo, discovered that the natural structure of leaves holds the key to creating a truly biodegradable base that can withstand the heat of soldering and potentially replace traditional printed circuit boards (PCBs).
"We were surprised to find that these natural quasi-fractal lignocellulose skeletons not only support living cells in nature, but can also hold solution-processable polymers together, even at relatively high temperatures where these polymers should begin flowing," according to Dr. Hans Kleemann, research group leader of the Organic Devices and Systems group at the Institute for Applied Physics.
Tests have demonstrated their reinforced films are able to support temperatures of over 200 degrees Celsius (392 degrees Fahrenheit), offer high flexibility, are more than 80% transparent, and provide an ultra-smooth surface that can support circuit printing, as Tech Xplore detailed.
Electronic devices, which hold an important role in modern life, use circuit boards to house and interconnect chips, transistors, and other components. These are typically made out of thin layers of glass fiber sheets, hard plastic, and copper, and there's no scalable way to recycle them.
A reported 137 billion pounds of e-waste was generated in 2022 alone, and less than a quarter of it was actually documented as collected and recycled. That means lots of PCBs are sitting in landfills, where their chemicals can seep into the environment.
The research team's plastic-free Leaftronics design could help mitigate e-waste pollution and ultimately reduce the amount of microplastics that end up in ecosystems across the globe.
At the end of its lifecycle, the report explained, this circuit board can be decomposed in soil or processed in biogas plants, where the remaining electronic components and precious metals can be recycled.
🗣️ How do you usually dispose of your old electronics?
🔘 Throw them away 🗑️
🔘 Donate them 📱
🔘 Sell them for cash 💵
🔘 Store them at home 🏠
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"This work points to a promising fusion of nature and technology, offering a sustainable path forward as we strive to reduce waste and combat climate change, a step to circular economy in electronics," Prof. Leo concluded.
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