Biotic design for stretchable, flexible, environmentally friendly, and biodegradable electronics

Application summary

With the usage of electronic equipment on the rise, the amount of electronic waste generated each day is equally growing enormously around the globe and their disposal is a serious problem. At the same time, electronics, and especially flexible and biodegradable electronics are more and more being integrated for example into medical devices, fashion items, wellness trackers and other portable devices. Many natural plant leaves are stretchable and flexible because of their unique surface features. This project aims at fabrication of biodegradable, environmentally friendly stretchable and flexible electronic devices using unique features present in the plant leaves as an inspiration. The research will be conducted at Tampere University where, we will use nanofabrication techniques and biodegradable polymers along with principles from nature to create highly stretchable electronic skins, which leave no electronic waste and can be utilized in health monitoring systems and other household electronic items.