Conductive lignin-composites for smart consumer electronics casings – step 1

Category: Hypothesis testing projects

The project ran between November 2021 and August 2022.

The hypothesis to be tested was: can one convert lignin-composites from the industrial partner into a higher value ‘smart material’ that is compatible with industrially relevant processes, such as injection molding or extrusion coating. To achieve ‘smartness’, one needs to add one or more functional additives, such as BaTiO3 (piezoelectric), graphene (electrically conductive).

The project tested different methods to incorporate these additives into the Lignin composite pellets obtained from industrial partner. Then the project tested these pellets for processability with an extruder and made films and dog-bone structures with an injection molding set-up. Finally, the composite material was tested at RISE to detect electrical feedback when we apply mechanical force on the material.

The project found that one could generate several 10s of millivolts and a few nanoamperes of current.

These voltage and current levels are sufficient to be detected by an external component. Such a material can act as a touch/pressure sensor, and it can be applied and processed into relevant forms by industrially relevant methods such as injection molding or extrusion coating. This is of course an early-stage proof of principle only but is promising to be used as ‘smart’ electronics casing.

Participants

RISE and Lignin Industries (LI).

Budget

The project’s total budget was 600 000 SEK.