This article acts as a scientific introduction to the other articles on this site and includes an extensive list of references for further reading.
Images on this page were created by DALL-E3 for decorative purposes only.
Sustainability Challenges of the Electronics Industry
The electronics industry is facing many challenges today. Part of the electronic waste, comprising toxic materials such as PFAS and heavy metals, is recycled using low-tech directly at the waste dumps. This is causing suffering to the people and damage to the environment. Batteries and solar cells are sometimes based on toxic, conflict, and/or critical materials. Electronic chips are produced in just a few countries in East Asia, places that may become unstable in the future. This makes the rest of the world (e.g. EU, U.S.) dependent on those countries for chip supply, components that are essential for electronic devices.
What if we could use eco-friendly, locally derived and abundant bio-based materials for the production of electronics instead? This is one of the most promising avenues for the future of green electronics.
Bio-based electronics for energy storage
The demand for efficient and eco-friendly batteries is on the rise. Traditional batteries such as Lithium batteries often contain metals that are limited in supply and harmful chemicals which can be detrimental to the environment.
Bio-based materials may offer sustainable alternatives for many components of energy storage devices. Cellulose and nanocellulose, which can be derived from wood, finds applications as an ionic conductor, a conducting electrolyte, binder in electrodes, and a separator membrane. Membranes from cellulose can show semipermeable properties, making them suitable for e.g. flow batteries. Cellulose, when mixed with conducting polymers into a composite can show a synergistic effect and combines both high ionic and electronic conductivities. This property is valuable in energy storage devices.
Lignin, a wood refining side stream, shows a range of beneficial properties.
Lignin[22], another coconut- or wood-based component, contains large portions of carbon. This makes it a good candidate for carbonization[23] and graphitization[20,24]. The lignin may end up as high conductivity graphene[21], large surface area carbons such as hard carbons[25,34,39] or activated carbon[26] for use in battery or supercapacitor[28] electrodes. The intrinsic reduction-oxidation[31] properties of lignin[22] and other plant-based chemicals such as alizarin[30] can also be used to improve the charge density of energy storage devices[32,33]. A lignin derivative has also been used as a binder in battery electrodes[38]. The sustainability[36] of some biobased supercapacitor and battery concepts has been explored[37]. Recent advances have illuminated the possibility of using large-scale paper machine infrastructure to produce battery electrodes as flat paper sheets[13,35].
References for further exploration of bio-based electronics
[16]
[18]
[19]
[22]
[23]
[24]
[25]
[26]
[27]
[28]
[29]
[30]
[31]
[32]
[34]
Lignin-Based Electrospun Carbon Fiber Anode for Sodium-Ion Batteries - IOPscience
[35]
[36]
[38]
[39]
Comments