Sustainable Macromolecular Materials in Flexible Electronics

Abstract

With advances in electronics, the concept of flexible electronics has left traditional designs behind. Many concepts, such as sensors, transistors, soft robotics, data, and energy storage devices have begun to find more widespread and flexible areas of use. From this point of view, using environmentally friendly, abundant, and renewable natural materials that reduce carbon emissions in the production and disposal of these components is the first step toward the concept of sustainable flexible electronics. This review deals with the integration of sustainable natural materials obtained from plant, animal, and bacterial sources into sensors, displays, data storage, power generation, and soft robotic systems, with appropriate examples compiled from the last ten years. In addition, limitations in the use of sustainable materials as flexible electronic components and their potential for use in innovative electronic applications in the future are foreseen.

Highly Stretchable, Biodegradable, and Recyclable Green Electronic Substrates

“…Sufficient thermal stability is essential for electronic substrates, which are required to withstand the high temperatures associated with the sintering of metal circuits or the assembly of electronic components. [ 4,26 ] AMW@CR‐SBGC exhibited outstanding thermal stability with initial decomposition temperatures ( T d 5% ) of 261.7 °C, 265.02 °C, and 268.14 °C for SBGC, 6%AMW@CR‐SBGC, and 12%AMW@CR‐SBGC, respectively (Figure 2c,d). The temperature of the laser printing process exceeds 100 °C.…”

“…[ 1,7 ] Biodegradable materials are the cornerstone of transient electronics, and AMW@CR‐SBGC is an ideal candidate for transient electronics because of its excellent biodegradability, sustainability, and environmental friendliness. [ 5,26 ] Traditional passive RFID antennas are composed of nondegradable substrates and metallic ink circuits, and a large number of discarded antennas without proper treatment have caused serious environmental pollution. [ 4 ] As a result, biodegradable and sustainable RFID antennas based on AMW@CR‐SBGC substrates and copper foils were fabricated with excellent flexibility and stable electrical signals ( Figure a,b).…”

Nano-enabled smart and functional materials toward human well-being and sustainable developments

“…Additionally, the biodegradability and biocompatibility aspects of materials used in flexible electronics are crucial, particularly for implantable, wearable devices. The biopolymers employed in the fabrication of flexible electronics include cellulose, starch, silk fibroin, chitosan, etc [136][137][138][139].…”

Mg/Zn metal‐air primary batteries using silk fibroin‐ionic liquid polymer electrolytes

“…[17] Like Mg-air batteries, Zn-air batteries have received much attention recently, [21]] because Zn possess a high theoretical volumetric capacity of 5855 mAh cm −3 and low reduction potential of −0.76 V versus the SHE, [22]] a theoretical energy density of 1.65 kW h kg −1 , [22] and Zn is an essential nutrient, [21] suggest it may prove useful as a biocompatible and biodegradable metal alongside Mg. [17] However, Zn-air batteries can also suffer from issues such as, passivation, dendrite growth, and hydrogen evolution from the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) during the use of the battery, limiting the practical applications by weakening the discharge performance of Zn-air batteries. [23,24] Degradable/transient electronics that could be disposed of safely in the environment after use, or indeed inside a body if used for medical purposes for human/veterinary applications, are an exciting class of electronic materials, [25][26][27][28][29][30][31] and degradable polymers can be useful components in the development of such degradable/transient electronics. [32][33][34][35][36][37][38] Degradable batteries/capacitors are an area of current research interest for their potential economic, environmental, and health impacts.…”

“…Degradable/transient electronics that could be disposed of safely in the environment after use, or indeed inside a body if used for medical purposes for human/veterinary applications, are an exciting class of electronic materials, [ 25–31 ] and degradable polymers can be useful components in the development of such degradable/transient electronics. [ 32–38 ] Degradable batteries/capacitors are an area of current research interest for their potential economic, environmental, and health impacts.…”