How to Make Your Phone 'Self-Destruct' a la Mission Impossible
Researchers are studying how to make devices, like cellphones, disappear or dissolve so they don't pose a threat to the environment.
By Sadho Ram — 17 Jul 2013, 03:09 PM — Updated about 11 years ago
WATCH: University aims to build 'vanishing' electronics that will dissolve in water
READ: How the dissolving tech that will self-destruct in water
Imagine this: There's no need to throw out your old cellphone, because it will self-destruct.
That's the idea behind a project at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where researchers are investigating how to build electronics that vanish in water.
ndtv.com
They are called 'transient electronics.' Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are studying how to make devices, like cellphones, disappear or dissolve so they don't pose a threat to the environment.
kcci.com
John Rogers is a professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the university. Rogers says the goal of the "born to die" program is to design transient technology that can dissolve at the end of its useful life, thus saving space in landfills and reducing waste.
You don’t need your cell phone to last for 25 or 50 years,” Rogers said to The Associated Press. “Nobody wants to keep it for that long anyway.”
yahoo.comThe research team isn't there yet. But it has designed a chip built on a thin film of silk that dissolves when hit with water.
Once the chip has done what it was implanted to do, it can break down in the body without negatively affecting the patient.
yahoo.com
Is this really possible?
Currently, the parts inside of a smartphone are made largely of materials that take decades to break down, filling up landfills long after their usefulness has passed.
yahoo.comWith these new materials that self-destruct, it would prevent those landfills from being filled with discarded devices, and minimize the chemicals leeching into the ground from the used electronics.
time.com
So far, the team has built a chip on a thin film of silk that dissolves when hit with water. Bad news if you ever drop your phone in the toilet, good news if you want to keep your phone from sitting in a landfill for years after your next upgrade.
The ongoing research project has other implications for the future, too. Because of how the chips can dissolve, they could also be used in medical implants designed for performing diagnostic or therapeutic functions