Eco‐Friendly Electronics—A Comprehensive Review
Source abstract
Abstract
Abstract Eco‐friendliness is becoming an indispensable feature for electrical and electronic equipment to thrive in the competitive market. This comprehensive review is the first to define eco‐friendly electronics in its multiple meanings: power saving devices, end‐of‐life impact attenuators, equipment whose manufacturing uses green processing, electronics that use materials that minimize environmental and health risks, designs that improve lifespan, reparability, etc. More specifically, this review discusses eco‐friendly technologies and materials that are being introduced to replace the well‐established ones. This is done for all material classes (metals, polymers, ceramics, and composites). Manufacturing, recycling, and final product characteristics are discussed in their various interconnected aspects. Additionally, the concept of consciously planned obsolescence is introduced to address the paradoxical relationship between durability and efficiency. The overall conclusions are that there is an important global trend to make electronics more eco‐friendly. However, matching the performance and stability of well‐established materials and technologies seems to be the main barrier to achieve it. These new implementations can have detrimental or beneficial net impacts on the environment. Assessing their net outcome is challenging because their impacts are frequently unknown and the current evaluation methods (and tools) are incapable of comprehensively quantifying these impacts and generating reliable verdicts.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Recycling and Waste Management Techniques · Advanced Battery Technologies Research · Extraction and Separation Processes
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
Post‐Graduation Program in Mining Metallurgical and Materials Engineering (PPGE3M) Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500 Porto Alegre Rio Grande do Sul 90650‐001 Brazil
SENAI Institute of Innovation in Polymers Engineering São Leopoldo Rio Grande do Sul 90650‐001 Brazil
School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering University of New South Wales Sydney New South Wales 2052 Australia
Funding
Australian Renewable Energy Agency
References (100+)
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