The research team of Canada’s Simon Fraser University is currently working on a project that will aid in introduction of eco-friendly materials in electronic equipments.
The team which is headed by SFU Professor Woo Soo Kim focuses on the invention of a method that will allow the use of wood derived cellulose materials instead of the currently used plastic and polymeric materials in the electronic equipments.
These wood derived cellulose materials invented by the research team is 3D printed and would provide an additional benefit of flexibility that will lead to an extra advantage of increased functionality in the electronic items.
“Our eco-friendly 3D printed cellulose sensors can wirelessly transmit data during their life, and then can be disposed without concern of environmental contamination,” says Kim, a professor in the School of Mechatronic Systems Engineering at SFU’s Surrey campus. The research is being carried out at PowerTech Labs in Surrey, which houses several state-of-the-art 3D printers used by researchers.
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This wonderful advancement by the research team of Simon Fraser is surely going to aid in the creation of a greener environment. The technology will help in the reduction of the highly toxic wastes from the circuit boards that earlier used to contaminate the environment. Also, the recycling process of the metallic items embedded on the circuit boards can now be collected easily.
The research project by SFU Professor Kim includes two international collaborative projects that consists of a Swedish Federal Laboratories project centering on the invention of environment-friendly cellulose based chemical sensors. While the other project involves collaboration with the scientific team of South Korea from the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology’s (DGIST)’s Department of Robotics Engineering, and PROTEM Co Inc, that focuses on the creation of printable conductive ink materials.
In the second project which is in collaboration with the Korean scientific team, the scientists have invented a fresh advancement in the embossing process technique. Through the aid of this new breakthrough, fine circuit patterns can now be freely imprinted on a flexible polymer substrate, which is an essential component of electrical items.