{"id":169810,"date":"2025-11-04T07:37:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T06:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=169810"},"modified":"2025-10-30T11:29:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T10:29:21","slug":"a-computer-mouse-made-of-wood-green-electronics-thanks-to-biodegradable-circuit-boards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/a-computer-mouse-made-of-wood-green-electronics-thanks-to-biodegradable-circuit-boards\/","title":{"rendered":"A computer mouse made of wood: Green electronics thanks to biodegradable circuit boards"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\"Not
Not only is the casing of this computer mouse made from biodegradable material, but so is its circuit board.
\u00a9 Empa<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Modern printed circuit boards are made from petroleum-based materials and are difficult to recycle. Empa researchers have developed a biodegradable version \u2013 an important step toward sustainable electronics. Their biomaterial is based entirely on wood and can be processed into functional circuit boards for electronic devices.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are the \u201cheart\u201d of every electronic device, from laptops to electric toothbrushes: printed circuit boards, also known as PCBs. These rigid boards are covered with copper traces and soldered electronic components and are usually of a tell-tale green color. They are, however, not exactly environmentally friendly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The substrate generally used for the traces and components is a laminate made of fiber-reinforced epoxy resin. This composite material is based on petroleum and cannot be recycled. Proper disposal is costly, for example in a special pyrolysis furnace with exhaust air purification \u2013 a challenge, given the large quantities of discarded circuit boards that accumulate for disposal each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers led by Thomas Geiger from Empa’s Cellulose and Wood Materials laboratory are working on a \u201cgreen\u201d, i.e., sustainable option \u2013 which is actually brown. As part of the EU research project HyPELignum<\/a>, they developed a wood-based substrate for PCBs that can compete with conventional epoxy resin \u2013 and is also completely biodegradable. The researchers have incorporated the boards made from this material into functioning computer mice.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"The
The \u201cgreen\u201d circuit board is actually not green, but brown: On the left is a mouse circuit board made of lignocellulose, on the right is a conventional mouse circuit board made of non-renewable raw materials. \u00a9 Empa<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Dream team of fibrils and lignin<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The source for the carrier material is a natural mixture of cellulose with a small amount of lignin. Strictly speaking, it is a waste product. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cOur partners at the TNO research institute in the Netherlands have developed a process for extracting the raw materials lignin and hemicellulose from wood,\u201d explains Geiger.<\/strong> \u201cWhat remains is brownish lignocellulose, for which there has been no use so far.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Geiger, who has a long track record of research into electronics made from cellulose, saw the potential of the raw material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order for the flaky lignocellulose to become a high-tech product such as a PCB, it must first be ground by adding water to break down the relatively thick cellulose fibers into thinner fibrils. This creates a fine network of slender fibrils that are interconnected. In a next step, the water is squeezed out of the mixture under high pressure. The fibrils move closer together and dry to form a solid mass. The researchers call this process hornification. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Empa
Empa researcher Yuliia Dudnyk with the flaky lignocellulose, the starting material for the circuit board. \u00a9 Empa<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
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\u201cThe lignin contained in the material serves as an additional binding agent,\u201d says Geiger.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The resulting hornified board is almost as resistant as a conventional circuit board made of fiber-reinforced epoxy \u2013 almost. This is because the compostable board is still sensitive to water and high humidity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But water is needed because, \u201cif no water can penetrate the carrier material at all, microorganisms such as fungi can no longer grow in it \u2013 and it would thus not be biodegradable,\u201d explains Geiger<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A compostable computer mouse<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, the researchers are confident that the resistance of lignocellulose-based biomaterials can be further improved with suitable processing methods. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cFor certain applications, however, we also need to rethink our relationship with electronics,\u201d says Thomas Geiger<\/strong>. \u201cMany electronic devices are only in use for a few years before they become obsolete \u2013 so it doesn’t make sense to manufacture them from materials that can last for hundreds of years.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In collaboration with their industrial partner PROFACTOR GmbH in Austria, the researchers have printed conductive traces on their sustainable circuit boards and fitted them with components to produce functioning electronic devices, such as a computer mouse or an RFID card. At the end of its service life, such a device could be composted given the right conditions. Once the carrier material has decomposed, the metallic and electronic components can be removed from the compost and recycled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, the researchers want to make their biomaterial for circuit boards more resistant without compromising its biodegradability. The project partners also plan to produce further demonstration devices with lignocellulose plates at the end of the HyPELignum project in 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Transfer to industry is also a must: \u201cTogether with Swiss and European companies, we want to develop further applications for the lignocellulose material,\u201d says Geiger<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Literature<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Y Dudnyk, P Kulha, V Proch\u00e1zka, G Nystr\u00f6m, T Geiger: Printed circuit board substrates derived from lignocellulose nanofibrils for sustainable electronics applications; Scientific Reports (2025); doi: 10.1038\/s41598-025-91653-1<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Contact<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Thomas Geiger
Cellulose & Wood Materials<\/a>
Tel. +41 58 765 47 23
E-Mail: thomas.geiger@empa.ch<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

About HyPELignum<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The EU research project HyPELignum aims to develop a holistic approach to functional, CO\u2082-neutral electronics. To this end, the international project partners from research and industry are combining wood-based raw materials and transition metals that are as non-critical as possible with additive manufacturing and advanced sustainability analyses. The project is funded under the Horizon Europe program and the State Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation (SERI) and will run from October 2022 to September 2026. Researchers at Empa are involved in the development of sustainable printed circuit boards and in life cycle analysis. www.hypelignum.eu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Modern printed circuit boards are made from petroleum-based materials and are difficult to recycle. Empa researchers have developed a biodegradable version \u2013 an important step toward sustainable electronics. Their biomaterial is based entirely on wood and can be processed into functional circuit boards for electronic devices. They are the \u201cheart\u201d of every electronic device, from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":169850,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"Empa researchers have developed a biodegradable version - their biomaterial is based entirely on wood and can be processed into functional circuit boards for electronic devices","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[11270,5838,13442,22124,18667,13257,5820,17337],"supplier":[506,27147],"class_list":["post-169810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-biodegradability","tag-bioeconomy","tag-biomaterial","tag-circuitboards","tag-electronics","tag-lignocellulose","tag-wood","tag-woodbased","supplier-eidgenoessische-materialpruefungs-und-forschungsanstalt-empa","supplier-profactor-gmbh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169810"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=169810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}