Electronic waste is a growing problem in a digitalized world. By developing electronics based on biomass derived and biodegradable materials, the use of finite resources and generation of electronics waste can be minimized. This is particularly important for wearable electronics and Internet-of-Things devices, which come in large numbers of relatively short lifetime.
Reproduced under CC-BY from Rahmanudin et al. Mater. Horiz., 2024
Sustainable wearable energy devices
Sustainable wearable energy devices are crucial as the capacity of batteries scales with the amount of material and conventional battery chemistries utilizes rare and toxic materials. To address this, we develop biomass-derived materials and concepts around abundant raw materials, which together improve the sustainability of energy devices substantially. Softness and stretchability of wearable batteries is achieved through innovative design concepts, materials and device structuring.
Printed wearables
Printed wearables can combine conformal form factors with sustainability through printed electronics processing. Printed electronics can reduce the amount of waste and the use of hazardous solvents in comparison to conventional electronics by patterning in an additive manner. In collaboration with Research Institute of Sweden (RISE) we develop materials and devices for printed wearables.
Efficient cooling technology
Efficient cooling technology has the potential to reduce the enormous energy consumption related to cooling in our modern society. Here we explore novel concepts for personalized cooling and solid state cooling based on the unique mechanical properties of soft electronics.
The research is funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg foundation (KAW) through the WWSC and WISE centers, the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF), the Swedish Research Council (VR), the Swedish Government Strategic Research Area in Materials Science on Advanced Functional Materials at Linköping University (AFM), the ÅFORSK foundation, and VINNOVA.
