Uncovering Byproduct Concerns in Eco-Friendly Electronics
Professor of electrical and computer engineering Ravinder Dahiya and Sofia Sandhu, a postdoc working in Dahiya’s group, recently published a paper “End-of-Life usefulness of degradation by products from transient electronics” in npj Flexible Electronics.
Dahiya and Sandhu’s work finds that current approaches to “green” electronics may inadvertently create new forms of pollution, particularly microplastics. This upends the current paradigm that green electronics (which include “transient” or biodegradable electronics) are widely considered to be an ecofriendly solution to reducing electronic waste, which is projected to reach 75 million metric tons by 2030.
Specifically, this work found that by-products released through biodegradable electronics can be toxic, carcinogenic, or contain non-degradable components. For example, copper complexes that can be harmful to plants and humans at higher concentrations, non-degradable polystyrene derivatives/microplastics, or even new molecules with unknown toxicity profiles.
For the electronics industry, the work calls for a fundamental rethinking of which materials are used in “green” electronics; for example, the research also found that natural polymers based on cellulose and silk fibroin degrade fastest while only releasing unharmful by-products, and should be prioritized. Regulators should also consider whether electronics standards for transient electronics should consider not just initial biodegradability but also degradability of the byproducts.