Scientists have created a biodegradable chip from an egg
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Qualitative electronics is distinguished by its durability, but, unfortunately, almost all components of electronic devices after getting to landfills decompose for at least several decades and poison the earth, releasing hazardous and toxic compounds into the environment. This problem is relevant for all countries and many scientists have been trying for a long time to find alternative materials that after the end of operation they would simply fall apart into harmless components and would not cause harm to the environment. Quite recently, one of the research groups managed to develop a unique method for creating an environmentally friendly electronic chip. An international team of scientists from Great Britain and China has created a chip, based on eggs, more specifically only a part of the egg - a protein that is known to be rich in protein.
One researcher explained that to create a chip, they applied a very thin film of protein fibers to the flint plate. On one side of the film, magnesium, and on the other hand, tungsten electrodes were applied. According to researchers, both tungsten and magnesium under natural conditions decay easily and quickly, which is why these materials were chosen to create a new ecological chip.
Then, taking as a basis a new chip from egg white, scientists were able to make a bio-decomposable memristor - a small element of electronic devices capable of storing information.
In theory, such elements existed from the early 70's, but only 8 years ago, the engineers of Hewlett Packard managed to create the world's first memristor. In computers, these elements are responsible for storing information, and allows almost instantaneous loading of the operating system. Of course, there are some peculiarities in the work of the protein memristor, in particular, it works at a certain level of humidity.
The specialists tested a unique memory element, and in the first trial period it worked normally for more than 3 months. After the used chip scientists placed in boiling water, after 10 hours all the elements of the silicon wafer completely dissolved. The remaining components of the chip - silicon and silicon dioxide - decomposed for about 3 days.
It is worth noting that the new created material, which is based on protein (the main component of protein) refers to the transition materials. In the field of electronic devices, this concept is relatively new and means that materials consisting of several elements are completely decomposable and do not harm the environment after the end of their service life. For the first time such a material, decomposing in nature, was practically created without a trace in the laboratory of one of the American universities located in the state of Iowa. Then, in 2014, scientists created a miniature antenna that transmits the necessary information, after the end of operation, the antenna completely decomposes into safe elements.
Scientists from several universities - Zhejiang, Fujian, Cambridge and Bolton University (Great Britain) were engaged in the development of the new unique bio-decomposable chip.
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