L2M NSERC - Single-step co-reduction of graphene oxide films for environmentally friendly RFID fabrication

在过去的十年里，电气和电子设备(EEE)的使用急剧增加，这引发了人们对与这种廉价的、一次性或很少使用的电子产品相关的电子垃圾(电子垃圾)的担忧，例如一次性交通工具和体育门票。射频识别(RFID)标签是一种典型的电子电气产品，具有单一或很少的使用要求，通常被丢弃，而不考虑重复使用或回收。传统标签中使用的环保材料--主要是化石燃料衍生塑料和金属箔--的缺乏，加上材料分离成本，意味着这些部件多年来一直存在污染环境的问题。在这个项目中，我们提出了一种快速、一步的方法来制造具有诱人的电气和机械性能的基于石墨烯氧化物的瞬时RFID标签。在这一制备过程中，使用了抗坏血酸(维生素C)和铝箔作为共还原剂，这两种材料都是广泛使用的廉价材料，在这里，铝箔可以回收和重复使用。由于石墨烯固有的环保特性，最终设备可以很容易地分散到水中，从而降低了未来RFID设备的污染潜力。基于该技术的产业化优点(例如，成本效益、大规模生产、方便和可重复性)，我们相信我们的方法适合快速进入市场。

The last decade has witnessed a sharp rise in the use of electrical and electronics equipment (EEE), which has raised concerns about the electronic waste (e-waste) that's associated with such cheap and single or few-use electronics, e.g. one-pass transportation and sports tickets. Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags are an example EEE product with a single or few use requirements that are often discarded, without any concern for reuse or recycling. The lack of eco-friendly materials - mostly fossil fuel derived plastics and metal foils - used in conventional tags, along with material separation costs means that these parts have had a polluting environmental presence for many years. In this project, we propose a fast, one-step method of fabricating Graphene Oxide-based transient RFID tags showing attractive electrical and mechanical properties. In thisfabrication process, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) and Aluminum foil are used as co-reductant agents, which are both widely available and cheap materials, and here, Al foils can be recycled and reused repeatedly. Due to the inherent eco-friendliness of graphene, the final device can be easily dispersed into water, allowing for a reduced pollution potential for future RFID devices. Based on the industrialization merits of the technology (e.g., cost-effective, mass productive, facile, and reproducibility), we believe our approach is suited for a fast entry to market.