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Biobased materials for sustainable printed circuit boards

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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.

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Acknowledgements

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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Population Health and Disease Prevention, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA

    Oladele A. Ogunseitan

  2. World Institute for Sustainable Development of Materials (WISDOM), University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA

    Oladele A. Ogunseitan, Julie M. Schoenung & Johnny Lincoln

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA

    Julie M. Schoenung, Eric Schwartz & Haoyang He

  4. Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA, USA

    Bichlien H. Nguyen, Karin Strauss & Kali Frost

  5. Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA

    Maryam Ibrahim

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  1. Oladele A. Ogunseitan
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  2. Julie M. Schoenung
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  3. Johnny Lincoln
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  4. Bichlien H. Nguyen
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  5. Karin Strauss
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  6. Kali Frost
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  7. Eric Schwartz
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  8. Haoyang He
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  9. Maryam Ibrahim
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Oladele A. Ogunseitan.

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Competing interests

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.

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Ogunseitan, O.A., Schoenung, J.M., Lincoln, J. et al. Biobased materials for sustainable printed circuit boards. Nat Rev Mater 7, 749–750 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-022-00485-2

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