Can You Make Something Else Using Used Electronic Devices?

UNIST Professor Sim Gyoseung's Team Develops Recyclable Wearable Electronics

Economical and Eco-friendly Sustainability ... Published in Nature Electronics

Turning used electronic devices into other devices?

A method has been developed to recycle electronic devices that need to be discarded into other electronic devices, drawing attention. This presents a new direction for solving environmental issues and for a sustainable future-oriented electronics industry.

The research team led by Professor Shim Gyo-seung from the Department of Chemistry at UNIST (President Lee Yong-hoon) developed organic-based flexible electronic components and wearable devices that can recover and recycle all materials. The developed electronic components are evaluated to have improved efficiency by introducing eco-friendly and economical processes from manufacturing to recycling.

Recently, active research and technological development on wearable electronic devices using organic electronic materials have been underway. As a result, various organic electronic wastes are also increasing.

Research illustration of recyclable organic-based flexible electronic devices and recycling process. This schematic shows the image, fabrication, and recycling process of recyclable organic-based flexible electronic devices, where the fabrication and recycling processes are carried out through the reuse and recovery of electronic materials (substances) at each stage.
[Image source=UNIST]

Until now, recycling technology has focused on selectively extracting inorganic materials such as glass used in LCD substrates or metals used as electrodes.

Professor Shim Gyo-seung explained, “We utilized an eco-friendly and economical process using solvents harmless to the human body,” and introduced, “We selectively used recyclable organic-based electronic materials instead of inorganic materials to create flexible wearable electronic devices.”

The research team minimized material waste by using drop casting and fabricated various passive and active components. Drop casting is a method where a solution is dropped onto a substrate and then heat-treated to form a film.

The study evaluated the recyclability of the produced organic electronic materials such as organic conductors, insulating gels, and semiconductors. Organic conductors were found to be recyclable more than five times, organic insulating gels reusable more than thirty times, and organic semiconductors recyclable about once.

Based on the developed recyclable flexible electronic devices, the research team demonstrated ‘closed-loop recycling’ among electronic components. Closed-loop recycling is a method where electronic devices, after reaching the end of their lifespan, have their materials recycled and reconfigured into other electronic devices.

They perfectly restored the original device characteristics without material loss by using a recycling method based on selective dissolution of materials.

Professor Shim Gyo-seung (far right in the back row) and lead author Researcher Park Hae-chan (second from the right in the front row), along with the research team, are standing in front of the camera.

Professor Shim said, “This research is the first to propose a solution to environmental problems arising from the development of the electronics industry using organic electronic materials, which had been overlooked,” and added, “It is expected to be a pioneering result and core technology that presents a new direction for a sustainable future-oriented electronics industry.”

Graduate student Park Hae-chan from the UNIST integrated MS-PhD program participated as the first author of this study, and the research paper was published online on December 6 in Nature Electronics, one of the world’s most prestigious international journals. The research was supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT, the National Research Foundation of Korea, and Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.