Sustain-a-Print: Sustainable materials and process for green printed electronics

由于对资源开采和废物产生增加及其对气候和生物多样性的不利影响的可怕预测，已经提出了一项循环经济行动计划，其中电子和电子设备被确定为具有循环潜力的优先产品组。这类废物每年增长2%，是欧盟增长最快的废物流之一，而欧盟内部回收的电子废物不到40%。有必要探索电子产品的新选择，这些选择旨在重复使用，维修和高质量回收。为了应对这一挑战，必须考虑几个因素，例如工业最终用户（IEU）规范，生命周期分析（LCA）和产品寿命终止（EoL）。印刷电子（PE）是一种可以解决这些挑战的增材制造方法，其特点是多功能性，可扩展性和低材料使用率，因此使其成为一般电子产品循环生产的理想选择。通过在柔性/可拉伸基板上印刷导电和介电油墨，可以用这种方法获得柔性甚至可拉伸的电子产品，从而在市场上开辟新的应用。然而，与传统的电子生产方法一样，PE产品目前的生命周期始于通过原材料开采获得的材料（基板，导电和介电材料）。这些材料被投入生产线，包括大批量模拟印刷，在分立元件上粘合和层压工艺。EoL要么是垃圾填埋场，要么是焚烧，在这两种情况下，都破坏了珍贵的材料，从而迫使使用开采的原材料。Sustain-a-Print（SaP）的主要目标是开辟新的生命周期路线，并将可持续性设计和实施到生命周期的每一步。这包括材料的选择、用途、来源、加工、装配和EoL。

Prompted by the dire forecasts for increased resource extraction and waste generation, and their detrimental effects on climate and biodiversity, a Circular Economy Action Plan has been put forth where electronics and electronic equipment have been identified as a priority product group with circularity potential. With an annual growth in waste of 2%, this group is one of the fastest growing waste streams in the EU, while less than 40% of electronic waste is recycled within the EU. There is a need to explore new options for electronics that are designed for reuse, repair, and high-quality recycling. To address this challenge, several factors must be considered such as the Industrial End User’s (IEU) specifications, Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and the products end-of-life (EoL). Printed electronics (PE) is an additive manufacturing method that can address these challenges and is characterized by its versatility, scalability, and low material usage, thus making it an ideal candidate for a circular production of electronics in general. Flexible and even stretchable electronics can be obtained with this method by printing conductive and dielectric inks on flexible/stretchable substrates opening new applications in the market. However, like traditional electronic production methods, current life cycle for a PE product starts with materials (substrate, conductive and dielectric materials) obtained through mining of raw materials. These materials are put into production lines, consisting of large volume analogue printing, gluing on discrete components and lamination processes. The EoL are either landfills or incineration, which in both cases, destroys precious materials, thus forcing the use of mined raw materials. The main goal of Sustain-a-Print (SaP) is to open new life-cycle routes and to design and implement sustainability into each step of the life cycle. This includes choice of materials, their usage, their origin, their processing, assembly, and EoL.