Projects

Sustainable materials and process for green printed electronics

Printed electronics (PE) is one of the fastest-growing waste streams in the European Union (EU), and it is estimated that less than 40% of electronic waste is recycled within the EU. They are made of fossil-based materials and precious metals, and their end-of-life (EoL) is either in landfills or incineration, which in both cases, destroys precious materials forcing the use of mined raw materials. Thus, there is a need to explore new options for PE that are designed for reuse, repair, and high-quality recycling. In this sense, the main goal of Sustain-a-Print (SaP) is to open new life-cycle routes and design and implement sustainability into each life-cycle step. This includes the choice of materials (biobased, recycled, biodegradable), usage, origin, processing, assembly, and EoL.

New nanomaterials based on hydrogels and fullerenes for diagnostics applications [FULSENS-GEL]- IDE/2022/000016

The FULSENS-GEL project is focused on the design and research of innovative nanomaterials composed by a hydrogel matrix doped with fullerenes to improve their mechanical, electrical and optical properties for their application in sensors. These materials with three-dimensional structures will allow the physical entrapment or by covalent bonding of recognition elements for their interaction with the analytes of interest in the field of clinical analysis. Mainly, the immobilization and stabilization of enzymes and aptamers will be done to improve the selectivity of the analysis systems implemented to measure lactate, pH, chlorides and cortisol in biological fluids, specially sweat. The sample to be analysed will be tranfer to detection cell by a microfluidic system that will be integrated. The electronics detection system, miniaturized and customized for this application will have amperometric, voltammetric and impedimetric measurement techniques.

This project has been financed by the Government of the Principality of Asturias through the Institute of Economic Development of the Principality of Asturias (IDEPA) and is co-financed by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), within the Call for Grants to finance R + D + i projects in international cooperation within the framework of the international call for the MERA-NET network of 2021

 

 

 

Links

 

 

 

  • Fundación para el Fomento en Asturias de la Investigación Científica Aplicada y la Tecnología. www.ficyt.es

 

  • Instituto de Desarrollo Económico del Principado de Asturias. www.idepa.es