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Nature Reviews Materials (2022 )Cite this article
Electronic waste, with printed circuit boards (PCBs) at its heart, is the fastest-growing category of hazardous solid waste in the world. New materials, in particular biobased materials, show great promise in solving some of the sustainability and toxicity problems associated with PCBs, although several challenges still prevent their practical application.
Initiatives to circularize the economy of electronic products by increasing the use of environmentally sustainable, recyclable and less toxic materials have been difficult to implement. Among the reasons are the incremental progress in developing electronics design focused on issues such as resource scarcity and the lack of strong regulatory incentives for developing new criteria for product performance (for example, including longevity and ease of repair) and responsible stewardship of materials used (for example, including lower carbon emissions and reduced toxicity)1. The situation is compounded by the hazardous post-consumer waste linked to the electronics industry2.
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The authors acknowledge support from Microsoft Research and the Lincoln Dynamic Foundation World Institute for Sustainable Development of Materials (WISDOM) at the University of California, Irvine. They thank A. Pistoia, Waste and Circular Economy Program Manager at Microsoft, for providing feedback on the draft version of this article.
Department of Population Health and Disease Prevention, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA
World Institute for Sustainable Development of Materials (WISDOM), University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA
Oladele A. Ogunseitan, Julie M. Schoenung & Johnny Lincoln
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA
Julie M. Schoenung, Eric Schwartz & Haoyang He
Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA, USA
Bichlien H. Nguyen, Karin Strauss & Kali Frost
Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA
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Correspondence to Oladele A. Ogunseitan.
J.M.S. and spouse have equity interest in Microsoft Corporation. The relationship with Microsoft has been reviewed and approved by the University of California, in accordance with its conflict-of-interest policies. B.H.N., K.S. and K.F. are employees of Microsoft Corporation. O.A.O., J.L., E.S., H.H. and M.I. declare no competing interests.
Ogunseitan, O.A., Schoenung, J.M., Lincoln, J. et al. Biobased materials for sustainable printed circuit boards. Nat Rev Mater (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-022-00485-2
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-022-00485-2
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Nature Reviews Materials (Nat Rev Mater) ISSN 2058-8437 (online)
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