As electronics like laptops, cellphones, and smartwatches become ever-more integral to our daily lives, a growing mountain of electronic waste looms on the horizon — and it’s quickly becoming too great to ignore. But most of this waste is hard to recycle because it contains toxic components and is tough to break down.
Now, some engineers hope nature can help solve our e-waste problem: enter biodegradable electronics (also called “soft” or “transient” electronics).
The field of soft electronics is still fairly young, but it could make tech trash a thing of the past. “It’s better to think about sustainable materials and approaches early on, because in the end, we’ll end up with a lot of waste,” says Martin Kaltenbrunner, an electronic engineer at Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria, and one of the study’s authors.
To tackle this challenge, Kaltenbrunner and his team are developing a base for flexible electronics made from the skin of mycelium, the chitin- and cellulose-rich stuff that makes up most of a mushroom’s body, as reported last week in Science Advances.
This base, also known as a substrate, is typically used to insulate and cool electronic circuits. According to the new study, mushroom skin could take the place of non-recyclable plastic polymers in future substrates.
Sign in to leave a comment.