Degradable Carbon-based Printed Electronic Sensors and Microdevices

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The rapid grow of printed electronic devices for the Internet of Things (IoT) has significantly improved our quality of life, but these technological achievements have also created an immense volume of electronic waste (E-waste). These disposable printed electronic sensors and IoT microdevices are essential for personalized healthcare, food safety inspection, intelligent packaging, environmental monitoring, and public security. Many of the applications require single-use devices with simple electronics that perform one or two well-defined functions within acceptable limits. The constituent electronic circuitry, transducers, nonrigid substrates, dielectric surface coatings, and protective flexible enclosures must also be designed to maintain functionality during normal operation, but once its usefulness has concluded the device is physically destroyed in an incinerator, disposed of in a landfill, or decomposed in-situ. The long-term objective of the research program is to reduce the impact of E-waste by focusing on green material synthesis (electronic inks, nontoxic dielectrics, degradable substrates), mechanical metamaterial structures that promote controlled degradation, and benign fabrication technologies that do not produce harmful residues. In this context, degradation means the fabricated device will harmlessly disintegrate into nontoxic carbon flakes (e.g., graphite, graphene, GO), transducer material (e.g., hydrogels, polymer composites), and substrate/coating residue (e.g., starch, cellulose) when exposed to the abiotic and biotic conditions of the disposal environment. The short-term objectives are to: (O1) develop biopolymers and mechanical metamaterial structures that enable device degradation; and (O2) advance environmentally benign laser microfabrication techniques that locally modify the functional properties of degradable stacked carbon/polymer films. The related research projects involve: (i) synthesis and characterization of novel biopolymer composites for degradable substrates, coatings and enclosures; (ii) design, structural analysis, and mechanical characterization of degradable metamaterial structures (e.g., optimal cell geometry); (iii) numerical simulation of laser modifications to stacked carbon/polymer films and layered structures; (iv) fabrication of laser micromachined metamaterials for degradable flexible devices; and (v) direct fabrication of conductive laser induced graphene (LIG) electrodes/circuits on biopolymer-coated substrates. This transformative research program will attract and train highly skilled HQP in the strategic area of global E-waste reduction. The comprehensive scientific studies will also enable Canadian industry to develop innovative physically degradable electronic technologies critical to waste reduction and national security including compostable smart packaging, pH sensors that harmlessly breakdown in soil, and wireless sensors that self-destruct when triggered by the disposal environment.