New technology prevents old devices from becoming toxic

Crushing circuit boards into nano dust for recycling, collecting precious metals, using self-destructing materials to produce electronic devices . are new solutions published by scientists , with entries pepper so that electronic waste continues to be a burden to the environment.

According to research by the United Nations University (Japan), every year the world emits 50 million tons of electronic waste and only 15% of these are processed. Block of waste that has not been treated or improperly treated will become a huge burden on the environment, health .

Recognizing this, in the past few decades, many countries, international organizations, companies and scientists in the world have always tried to find solutions to e-waste treatment.

For example, Washington-based Redbox and Coinstar Company established an environmentally friendly ATM kiosk chain - where consumers can resell old phones at the point where they bought them. The company will then refurbish the parts that can be used and recycle other parts to ensure no harm to the environment.

Many organizations around the world are also set up to raise awareness and call for changes in how to handle e-waste issues, such as the United Nations University and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA ) coordinate with the initiative to solve e-waste problems. The good news is that recently, some research results on waste treatment have opened new directions that are expected to help solve this problem thoroughly.

Arrange computers to leave in an newly opened e-waste recycling plant in Wuhan, China.(Photo: Reuters).

Crush electronic trash into nano dust

Scientists at Rice University in Texas have found a way to reuse electronic waste by crushing circuit boards into nano dust. They used a crusher that contained a nitrogen-cooled chamber (to prevent sensitive materials from melting, mingling with each other) with argon gas and a small steel ball to crush the vessels into granular particles. removable with a size of 20-100 nanometers (human hair has a diameter of 80,000-100,000 nanometers).

Compared to the recycling of electronic waste or recycling to collect metals through fire or chemical use, this new measure is said to be much more economical.'Other ways to handle e-waste are a one-way cycle, burning or using chemicals to dispose of waste that consumes more energy and still produces waste. We introduced a system capable of breaking all compounds - oxides, metals, polymers - into a homogeneous and reusable powder, "said Chandra Sekhar Tiwary, a member of the research team.

After grinding cold, nanoparticles are added to water to separate and reuse. "Nothing is wasted" - Tiwary said. In this study, scientists only use a small crusher of small size. However, they can completely create industrial-sized machines.

Making wood semiconductors

Scientists at Rice University, USA have succeeded in turning wood - a self-destructible material - into a conductor by turning wood surfaces into graphene materials for use in electronic devices, instead of using conductive materials, it is easy to pollute the environment.

To do this, a team led by the James Tour chemist used industrial lasers to produce graphene on pine wood in a hydrogen-rich environment or inert argon gas. This is a method that helps create highly flexible layered graphene arrays. Because of the lack of oxygen, the temperature from the laser will not burn a piece of wood but turns its surface into foam graphene clinging to the wood.

Scientists hope they can harness graphene's conductive properties made from pine - environmentally friendly, biodegradable materials - to create energy-storing supercapacitors. .

Making wooden chips

A common chip is made of a thin piece of silicon, which implants different materials to create microchips with different properties (called wafer) such as copper, some types of alloys such as GaSb, GaAs, GaP . These semiconductor materials, when discharged into the environment, will have a big impact.

The research team led by Professor Zhenqiang Ma, University of Wisconsin, led a way to use wood to make computer chips instead of silicon wafers. Professor Ma's chip uses processed wood to form nanocellulose sheets, capable of bending to make wafer.

According to him, nanocellulose material will help reduce the number of semiconductor materials needed to use on chips without affecting the processing speed of microchips. In addition, this chip can self-destruct, not harmful to the environment.