Beeswax and carnauba wax-derived from a species of palm tree-could make dielectrics that are also hydrophobic, which might be useful in some applications, Irimia-Vladu says. Many other biological materials could be transformed into suitable dielectrics, he says, including aloe, silk, and egg whites. Irimia-Vladu, a materials scientist at Joanneum Research in Weiz, Austria, has used cellulose as a dielectric layer in an inverter circuit and shellac as a dielectric in organic field-effect transistors. “We have to be ashamed” of the amount of e-waste humanity produces, Mihai Irimia-Vladu told a symposium on organic bioelectronics at the December meeting of the Materials Research Society, in Boston. One way to lessen the problem, some scientists say, may be to use biological materials-including plant dyes and DNA-to build devices that are biodegradable and biocompatible. The United Nations estimates that people throw away about 50 million metric tons of electronics every year.
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