End-of-Life challenges of printed electronics

Keskinen, Marika; Valkama, Jani

doi:10.1109/issst.2009.5156737

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Prior to commercialization and establishment of logistical networks, many uncertainties exist in ECD disposal practices. Printed electronics, especially ECDs, cannot be reused as they have a fixed and short lifetime, which leaves landfilling, incineration, or recycling as viable options . Landfilled printed electronics may cause nanomaterials to leach, whereas its incineration produces toxic gases .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Printed electronics, especially ECDs, cannot be reused as they have a fixed and short lifetime, which leaves landfilling, incineration, or recycling as viable options . Landfilled printed electronics may cause nanomaterials to leach, whereas its incineration produces toxic gases . On the other hand, recycling is impeded by logistic issues, cost, and high-level integration of ECD. , In a previous analysis, recycling paper-based anticounterfeiting labels utilizing ECD was explored; it was associated with paper waste streams.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Landfilled printed electronics may cause nanomaterials to leach, whereas its incineration produces toxic gases . On the other hand, recycling is impeded by logistic issues, cost, and high-level integration of ECD. , In a previous analysis, recycling paper-based anticounterfeiting labels utilizing ECD was explored; it was associated with paper waste streams. Hence, the paper substrate was recycled, and other components were landfilled .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Steering Innovation toward Sustainable Electrochromic Displays: A Prospective Life Cycle Assessment Study

Kamali,

Lee,

Futsch

et al. 2024

ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng.

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Printed electrochromic displays (ECDs) have promising applications in visual communications. A cradle-to-gate exante prospective life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted on six ECD architectures to uncover the environmental implications of material and technological choices. Several materials were considered in ECD fabrication, including silver, carbon, and indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes, plastic-and paper-based substrates, and two electrolytes. The architectures differed in technology maturity levels, ranging from pilot-scale and lab-scale prototypes to conceptual designs. Regardless of their technological maturity, all architectures were scaled up to emulate impact burdens as if they were produced on an optimized industrial production scale. The analysis of ECD architectures at the early development stage, especially conceptual designs, determines their environmental viability without the need for experimental testing, resulting in significant savings of time and resources. The all-silver architecture was associated with the highest environmental impacts across all endpoint and midpoint indicators, except for the water consumption indicator. On the other hand, the all-carbon architecture exhibited the lowest environmental impacts, followed by the carbon-ITO architecture and all-ITO architecture. Based on the environmental impact results, we could identify ECD architectures that merit further development and those that have limited potential for improvement, thus recommending to cease research and development of ECD architectures employing silver electrodes. The approach employed in this LCA guides scaling-up and predicting the environmental impacts of conceptual ECD architectures. This may benefit LCA practitioners and researchers engaged in ex-ante prospective LCA studies. Furthermore, the findings of this LCA might be applicable to other electronic devices, where silver, ITO, and carbon could be interchangeably used as electrodes.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Steering Innovation toward Sustainable Electrochromic Displays: A Prospective Life Cycle Assessment Study

Kamali,

Lee,

Futsch

et al. 2024

ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng.

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“…Smart packaging, that includes electronic components, is not considered as Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and must be recycled as packaging waste according to the EU's packaging waste directive (European Union 1994). This can lead to issues in the quality of recycled plastics (Keskinen and Valkama 2009). The legislation requires updates and modifications to provide a framework for overseeing these innovative hybrid applications.…”

Section: Eol Options For Pe Attached To Packaging Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of conductive ink alternation on the sustainability and functioning of printed electronics

Nassajfar

Välimäki

Hakola

et al. 2023

Flex. Print. Electron.

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The demand for printed electronics (PE) is expected to increase for improved functionality and autonomy of products in the context of the Internet of Things, especially for sensing and communication. With this trend, the environmental performance of novel technologies is of growing importance, and researchers are exploring ways to make them more environmentally friendly using bio-based substrates and additive printing methods. Conductive inks have the highest environmental impact in the life cycle of printed electronics, and there are two options to decrease the impact: increase recycling rates or replace commonly used silver inks with less impactful materials such as copper or graphite. With the current mixed waste management system, a higher recycling rate for silver is not achievable. Copper and graphite have a lower environmental impact than silver, however, the electrical conductivity of copper and graphite inks is lower than silver ink. This article introduces a double-parameter comparison to simultaneously assess the environmental and electrical conductivity of printed electronics using three inks of silver, copper, and graphite inks. Then based on the technical feasibility, this study proposes suitable applications for each substrate and ink combination.

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“…Approaches to improve the sustainability of printed electronics in literature focus on the recovery of valuable silver. 13 A straightforward solution is to replace the substrate material with water-soluble alternatives such as polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). 14 Although this allows for direct release of the silver, it is limited to specialized applications due to the mechanical properties of PVA and its susceptibility to water.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%