SUNSHINE International Collaboration Activities: Part I

Collaboration with Duke University

GreenDecision (Italy), Dt.ssa Arianna Livieri and Dr. Danail Hristozov

Duke Univeristy (USA), Professor Mark Wiesner

Background

Though nanomaterials have been studied for a long time, there are still significant engineering challenges preventing their effective use in fully printed and recyclable electronics. While there have been individual studies focusing on ink development, print processing, application demonstration, and environmental impact, the lack of interconnectivity between these findings has hindered progress in the field. To make significant advances and develop more sustainable manufacturing technologies, a multidisciplinary engineering effort is required. The LEAP-HI project brings together a team of engineering researchers who will focus on the discovery and development of ACRE materials and processes to revolutionize the electronic display manufacturing sector. As the required performance for targeted devices in this sector is within reach and the need for reduction in high GHG manufacturing is substantial, this is a realistic target for printed nanomaterials to transform.

Results of the EU-US joint collaboration

The aim of the collaboration among GreenDecision and Duke University, is the the application of the under-development tiered approach to all-carbon recyclable electronic (ACRE) materials to replace silicon or metal oxide-based semiconductor materials for the flat-panel display industry. The ACRE material under assessment is a TFT (thin film transistor) made of Graphene, CNT (Carbon nano tubes) and CNC (crystalline nano cellulose). Currently, SUNSHINE Tier 1 approach has been applied to two chosen design alternatives, an ACRE and non-ACRE material. The non-ACRE material will act as a benchmark, i.e., a material that exists in the market and has the same or similar function as the ACRE one. Once the filled questionnaire is available, the information will be thoroughly evaluated, and the resulting outcomes will be produced. Based on the results of the Tier 1 questionnaire, the identified concerns and information gaps will support the selection of the most promising materials and will guide data acquisition for the promising design alternatives to perform a more detailed sustainability assessment in Tier 2. Tier 2 consists of screening LCA studies of different types of ACRE materials production to understand, in this design phase, which raw materials and processes have better environmental performances. Concerning Tier 2, the functional unit, space, and time boundaries of the system have been chosen. Pertinent multi-component nanomaterials are being identified, and a literature review of the processes used to produce them is being performed. Also, an inventory including the materials to produce both ACRE and non-ACRE materials is being compiled. Indeed, the processes of graphene, CNT and CNC have been developed within the SimaPro Software.

Further steps

After a screening assessment of the materials inventory, a quantitative assessment of the most plausible scenarios for materials/chemicals combination will be performed. Indeed, a cradle-to-gate LCA (an LCA that does not consider the use and end-of-life processes) of the material will be performed.

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SUNSHINE and INFRAMES have a long collaboration history initiated within the International Collaboration Work Package (WP) of SUNSHINE. Facilitated by the WP Leader Dr Lang Tran and the SUNSHINE Coordinator, Dr Danail Hristozov, numerous collaboration routes such as oversees staff exchange and knowledge transfer opportunities were designed and further open up to other EU funded projects working on (nano-) safety and sustainability of advanced materials.

“The synergies between the international communities in INFRAMES and SUNSHINE are numerous. Our hope is that, in coming together as a single community in Venice, we have planted the seed for broader, long-term collaborations that will address the challenges posed by new materials such as nanomaterials”

       - Dr Mark Wiesner 

“We were able to foster a fruitful scientific collaboration building a truly international community working on topics of high societal and environmental impact” 

- Dr Danail Hristozov

About SUNSHINE

SUNSHINE is an industry-oriented project, where leading research and technology organisations cooperate with SMEs and large industries to develop and implement simple, robust, and cost-effective Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) strategies for materials and products based on advanced multi-component nanomaterials. To this end, the project has established a user-friendly e-infrastructure as a digital hub to foster dialogue, collaboration, and information exchange between actors along entire product supply chains to support SSbD decision making and prototyping.

About INFRAMES 

INFRAMES (International Network for Researching, Advancing, and Assessing Materials for Environmental Sustainability) leverages the substantial investments in US and EU networks in the area of environmental nanotechnology to assemble a coordinated international community of researchers dedicated to assessing the sustainability of the materials our society produces. INFRAMES includes 18 US universities associated with the Center for the Environmental Implications of NanoTechnology (CEINT) and the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology (CSN), along with networks representing over 100 participating EU and UK partners, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana, and researchers at six synchrotron X-ray facilities in four countries.