Printable and recyclable carbon electronics using crystalline nanocellulose dielectrics

Electronic waste can lead to the accumulation of environmentally and biologically toxic materials and is a growing global concern. Developments in transient electronics—in which devices are designed to disintegrate after use—have focused on increasing the biocompatibility, whereas efforts to develop methods to recapture and reuse materials have focused on conducting materials, while neglecting other electronic materials. Here, we report all-carbon thin-film transistors made using crystalline nanocellulose as a dielectric, carbon nanotubes as a semiconductor, graphene as a conductor and paper as a substrate. A crystalline nanocellulose ink is developed that is compatible with nanotube and graphene inks and can be written onto a paper substrate using room-temperature aerosol jet printing. The addition of mobile sodium ions to the dielectric improves the thin-film transistor on-current (87 μA mm−1) and subthreshold swing (132 mV dec−1), and leads to a faster voltage sweep rate (by around 20 times) than without ions. The devices also exhibit stable performance over six months in ambient conditions and can be controllably decomposed, with the graphene and carbon nanotube inks recaptured for recycling (>95% recapture efficiency) and reprinting of new transistors. We demonstrate the utility of the thin-film transistors by creating a fully printed, paper-based biosensor for lactate sensing. All-carbon thin-film transistors—made using crystalline nanocellulose as a dielectric, carbon nanotubes as a semiconductor and graphene as a conductor—can be printed onto paper substrates and the constituent materials subsequently recycled.