Ecofriendly computer chips made from wood

MIT Technology Review : Portable electronic devices such as cell phones and tablets are proliferating, and the more frequently they get upgraded, the more units get discarded. To decrease the ever-growing amount of waste being generated, researchers have been trying to integrate more renewable and biodegradable materials. Now Zhenqiang Ma of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and colleagues have replaced the plastic components of computer chips with a wood-derived material called nanocellulose paper. First, the electronics are created in the conventional way, then they are transferred onto the nanocellulose surface. The researchers have shown that not only do the new chips perform as well as conventional ones, they biodegrade when exposed to certain fungi. Besides being more environmentally friendly, the new chips could have military applications because of their ability to rapidly degrade, which might help prevent sensitive information from falling into the wrong hands.