A water-based conductive ink that promises to revolutionize the production of flexible electronic circuits without harming the environment has been developed by a researcher at the Institute of Systems and Robotics at the University of Coimbra.
The research that made it possible to develop this paint – which avoids the use of organic solvents, which are polluting and harmful to the environment – was carried out by Manuel Reis Carneiro, who is also a PhD student in the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program at the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Coimbra and Carnegie Mellon University.
“Because it is produced with water, this ink is more sustainable, environmentally friendly and significantly reduces the environmental impact of existing solutions. Electronic stickers to monitor health or guarantee the quality of food products are some of the possible uses,” explained the University of Coimbra, in a press release sent to the Lusa news agency.
Manuel Reis Carneiro is part of a team led by Mahmoud Tavakoli who, according to the UC, already has extensive experience in developing flexible electronic circuits.
“Producing these circuits easily, quickly and economically has been one of the main challenges for the Coimbra team, which is now taking a new step in this direction by developing a paint that is sustainable and environmentally friendly,” the institution stressed.
Manuel Reis Carneiro explained that the use of a water-based ink for the printing and production of flexible electronic circuits has numerous advantages.
“On the one hand, it radically reduces the ecological footprint of production, because it doesn’t use polluting materials. On the other hand, it makes it much easier to recycle and subsequently reuse the circuits, which was previously a complex procedure,” he said.
According to the researcher, by simply placing the circuit in alcohol, the components and metal particles separate and are ready to be reused.
Another advantage of this paint is that, unlike the previous ones, it doesn’t need to be refrigerated; it can be kept at room temperature for about a month, which makes it easier to preserve, reduces the ecological footprint and maintenance costs.
These flexible circuits have applications mainly in the health sector, such as biomonitoring sensors and patches capable of recording patient health data: muscle activity, breathing, body temperature, heart rate, brain activity and emotions.
“The majority of medical devices used in hospital settings, particularly electrodes for electrophysiology, are single-use and are wasted after one use. Thus, the introduction of this new ink, which allows for easy and economical recycling, has a significant impact on the reuse of monitoring patches, significantly reducing the electronic waste also known as ‘e-waste’, generated by single-use solutions,” he explained.
According to UC, the food industry is another sector that could benefit from this discovery by integrating it into the next generation of smart packaging.
“The team tested the application of this new ink on stickers that can be printed on plastic and applied to the packaging of perishable food products to monitor their temperature and guarantee their quality. In this way it is possible to guarantee proper preservation, record any problems that occur during storage and inform the consumer,” he said.
