Polymer‐assisted fully recyclable flexible sensors

• Main Authors: Xinglei Tao, Shenglong Liao, Yapei Wang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2021-04-01
• Series: EcoMat
• Subjects: electrical waste; electronic sensors; flexible; recyclable polymers
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1002/eom2.12083

Abstract The increasing number of electronic sensors after their disposal is leading to severe environmental threatens due to the release of heavy metals or other nonrecyclable semiconductors in sensing units and have raised worldwide interest in the design of electronic sensors with longer‐term service life in order to reduce the discharge of electrical pollutants. From this point of view, there have been a great number of examples relevant to electronic sensors with self‐healing or recyclable properties. Unlike the enormous studies paid to self‐healing electronic sensors, a limited number of fully recyclable sensors have been exploited and there is no review article relevant to this topic so far. This minireview aims to summarize the recent progresses of electronic sensors that could be shredded and reshaped with the assistance of recyclable polymers. Two types of fully recyclable electronic sensors are mainly focused, including blended type via blending sensing conductors in the polymer matrix and intrinsic type composed of sensing polymers. According to their classification, we specifically demonstrate the basic design principle, recycling procedure, and sensing performance of those different types of recyclable electronic sensors. At last, a brief discussion regarding the remaining challenges and future perspectives of this new research area is delivered which hopefully provides inspirations to develop more fully recyclable electronic sensors with versatile functions.