Now Electronic Circuits Could Be Easily Disposed

A recently published research paper describes a biodegradable prototype circuit board that is manufactured on a sheet of paper with fully integrated electrical components

Presently, a huge amount of electronic devices consist of circuit board that is not easy to recycle and are very bulky, due to which they cannot be used in medical devices, personal wearable devices or environmental monitors, etc. The only solution is to use paper-based circuit boards. But, using paper-based circuits involves the requirement of specialized paper which makes it expensive. Hence, in a recent ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces study, researchers sought to address this problem and developed a less expensive paper-based circuit board that is simple to manufacture and had all the electronic components fully integrated into the sheet. This paper-based circuitry is flexible and can be easily disposed of.

The team sketched a paper-based amplifier-type circuit that consists of resistors, capacitors, and a transistor. Initially, they used wax to print channels onto a sheet of paper in a simple pattern. Now, they melted the wax so that it is soaked into the paper, and the areas not blocked by the wax are used to soak the printing of semi-conductive and conductive inks. Further, the researchers screen-printed additional conductive metal components and cast a gel-based electrolyte onto the sheet.

The above experiment revealed that the resistor, capacitor, and transistor designs performed properly. The final circuit was very flexible and thin, just like paper, even after adding the components. The team showed the degradability of the circuit by burning the entire unit, it quickly burned to ash after being lit on fire. The researchers claim this research could provide a step toward producing completely disposable electronic devices.

Click here for the Published Research Paper