Conductive Ink with Circular Life Cycle for Printed Electronics

Junpyo Kwon; Christopher DelRe; Philjun Kang; Aaron Hall; Daniel Arnold; Ivan Jayapurna; Le Ma; Matthew Michalek; Robert O Ritchie; Ting Xu

doi:10.1002/adma.202202177

Conductive Ink with Circular Life Cycle for Printed Electronics

Adv Mater. 2022 Jul;34(30):e2202177. doi: 10.1002/adma.202202177. Epub 2022 Jun 11.

Authors

Junpyo Kwon^{1

2}, Christopher DelRe^{2

3}, Philjun Kang⁴, Aaron Hall³, Daniel Arnold⁵, Ivan Jayapurna³, Le Ma^{2

3}, Matthew Michalek³, Robert O Ritchie^{1

2

3}, Ting Xu^{2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
² Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
³ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
⁵ Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.

PMID: 35580071
DOI: 10.1002/adma.202202177

Abstract

Electronic waste carries energetic costs and an environmental burden rivaling that of plastic waste due to the rarity and toxicity of the heavy-metal components. Recyclable conductive composites are introduced for printed circuits formulated with polycaprolactone (PCL), conductive fillers, and enzyme/protectant nanoclusters. Circuits can be printed with flexibility (breaking strain ≈80%) and conductivity (≈2.1 × 10⁴ S m^-1 ). These composites are degraded at the end of life by immersion in warm water with programmable latency. Approximately 94% of the functional fillers can be recycled and reused with similar device performance. The printed circuits remain functional and degradable after shelf storage for at least 7 months at room temperature and one month of continuous operation under electrical voltage. The present studies provide composite design toward recyclable and easily disposable printed electronics for applications such as wearable electronics, biosensors, and soft robotics.

Keywords: 3D printing; conductive ink; electronic waste; enzyme-containing composites; recycling.

MeSH terms

Animals
Biosensing Techniques*
Electric Conductivity
Electronics
Ink*
Life Cycle Stages

Abstract

MeSH terms

Grants and funding