New Biodegradable Computer Chip is Made Out of Wood

Can you imagine a biodegradable computer chip made out of wood? It sounds farfetched, but it's a goal that researchers are aiming for. Now, scientists have created a new, semiconductor chip made almost entirely out of wood.

Most portable electronics are made out of non-renewable, non-biodegradable and potentially toxic materials. More worrisome is the fact that these electronics are discarded at an alarming rate as consumers get the next best gadget. This new chip, though, may change things.

"The majority of material in a chip is support," said Zhenqiang "Jack" Ma, one of the researchers, in a news release. "We only use less than a couple of micrometers for everything else. Now the chips are so safe you can put them in the forest and fungus will degrade it. They become as safe as fertilizer."

In this latest effort, the researchers addressed two key barriers to using wood-derived materials: surface smoothness and thermal expansion. In this case, they replaced the substrate, or support layer with cellulose nanofibril (CNF), a flexible material made of wood.

"You don't want it to expand or shrink too much," said Zhiyong Cai, one of the researchers. "Wood is a natural hydroscopic material and could attract moisture from the air and expand. With an epoxy coating on the surface of the CNF, we solved both the surface smoothness and the moisture barrier."

In fact, the performance of the wooden chip is similar to existing chips. In addition, the biodegradability will have a positive impact on the environment, and the flexibility of the chips lends itself to widespread adoption. That said, it may be quite some time before wooden electronic chips become more mainstream.

The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.

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