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Printed electronics (PE) have provided new material and application opportunities for devices and systems as well as new manufacturing routes that all need to be considered for commercialization. This paper introduces a case study with universally relevant manufacturing processes and applications in the PE area, focusing on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) of the Personal Activity Monitor (PAM) device. In the study, the PAM device's most important costs and environmental impacts during the prototype pilot production and device use phases are identified and assessed. Additionally, the potential environmental impacts of post-consumption scenarios are considered. The LCA results indicate that the roll-to-roll (R2R) assembly of electronics and the R2R injection over-molding are generally the most prominent production process steps affecting the results. From the LCC perspective, the capitial expenditure (CAPEX) contributor is the R2R assembly pilot line, due to its high investment cost and long operating time compare to other production assets. The traditional electronic components are the major operating expenditures (OPEX), especially the microcontroller units (MCUs) and accelerometers, in contrast to the low impact from the printed electronics. There are several advantages to applying LCA and LCC since they provide explanations of the relationships between cost, environmental, design, and manufacturing characteristics., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2023 The Authors. Global Challenges published by Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

The industrialization of perovskite solar cells relies on solving intrinsic-to-material issues. To reach record efficiencies perovskite deposition needs to be finely adjusted by multi-step processes, in a humidity free glove-box environment and by means of hardly scalable techniques often associated with toxic solvents and anti-solvent dripping/bath. Herein, the use of polymeric material is proposed to deposit perovskite layers with easy processability. To the scope, a starch-polymer/perovskite composite is developed to suit slot-die coating technique requirement, allowing the deposition of hybrid halide perovskite material in a single straightforward step without the use of toxic solvents, and in uncontrolled humid environment (RH up to 70 %). The starch-polymer increases the viscosity of the perovskite precursor solutions and delays the perovskite crystallization that results in the formation of perovskite films at mild temperature (60 °C) with good morphology. These innovative inks enables the fabrication of flexible solar cells with p-i-n configuration featured by a power conversion efficiency higher than 3 %. . Overall, this approach can be exploited in the future to massively reduce perovskite manufacturing costs related to keeping the entire fabrication line at high-temperature and under nitrogen or dry conditions., (© 2021 The Authors. ChemPlusChem published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Epidermal electronic systems (EESs) are skin-like electronic systems, which can be used to measure several physiological parameters from the skin. This paper presents materials and a simple, straightforward fabrication process for skin-conformable inkjet-printed temperature sensors. Epidermal temperature sensors are already presented in some studies, but they are mainly fabricated using traditional photolithography processes. These traditional fabrication routes have several processing steps and they create a substantial amount of material waste. Hence utilizing printing processes, the EES may become attractive for disposable systems by decreasing the manufacturing costs and reducing the wasted materials. In this study, the sensors are fabricated with inkjet-printed graphene/PEDOT:PSS ink and the printing is done on top of a skin-conformable polyurethane plaster (adhesive bandage). Sensor characterization was conducted both in inert and ambient atmosphere and the graphene/PEDOT:PSS temperature sensors (thermistors) were able reach higher than 0.06% per degree Celsius sensitivity in an optimal environment exhibiting negative temperature dependence.

A spironaphthoxazine (SO) photoswitch was synthesized, and its photochromic behaviors were investigated. SO underwent reversible ring-opening/closure isomerization between a spirocyclic isomer (closed form) and a merocyanine (MO isomer, open form) upon ultraviolet light irradiation. For the model SO in this work, the thermal equilibrium is substantially shifted toward the spirocyclic isomer even at -30.0 °C. However, addition of zinc, as Zn(ClO(4))(2), exerted an important effect on the thermal reversion process from the open (MO) to the closed form (SO). Kinetic analysis showed that thermal reversion with zinc is retarded more than 13-fold, significantly improving bistability. Moreover, introduction of zinc to the spirooxazine-merooxazine (SO-MO) system resulted in a new absorption band readily distinguishable from the bands arising from spirooxazine and merooxazine. For the first time, to the best of our knowledge, the microscopic rate constants for: MO photogeneration from SO (k(1)), thermal reversion of MO to SO (k(2)), complexation of MO with zinc (k(3)) and for dissociation of the complex, MO-Zn (k(4)), as well as for the ionization equilibria of Zn(ClO(4))(2) have been evaluated. The preferred transoid structures of MO and those of MO-Zn derived from the preferred MO structures are considered. Although the kinetic study does not permit elucidation of the nature of zinc binding to MO to give MO-Zn, nor the precursor isomers of MO, a DFT calculational study in progress should shed light on the structure and relative stability of these essential intermediates.