Compostable organic sensors as a sustainable strategy for packaging digitalization

Digital labels for food monitoring prospect to extend products shelf life, reduce the economic and environmental burden caused by waste throughout the value chain - from production to distribution and consumption - and enable better traceability.

However, to be sustainable, digital packaging would need to completely degrade in the environment after service lifetime.Standard electronic components (metals and semiconductors) are expensive and hard to dispose of, hindering their use for biodegradable electronics. Water-soluble materials suffer from inadequate lifetime, uncontrolled degradation, and/or poor performance.

Future disposable sensing and packaging components should provide high analytical performance and degrade by the action of enzymes - something that can not be achieved with metal-oxide semiconductors (e.g., silicon) and plastics, such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) used for meat and fish packaging.π-conjugated polymers offer the potential to undergo enzymatic breakdown.

Yet, there is currently no example of a material and device thereof combining all the required properties.

This project develops the first example of a biodegradable sensor with components that are specifically designed to provide stability in humid or aqueous environment and be degraded by the action of enzymes and microorganisms in compost.Devices will be used as disposable sensors for food monitoring: application where control over device performance and degradation is of utmost importance.