The emerging field of carbon-based components could revolutionize both consumer and industrial devices.
Transparent. Flexible. Roll-up. Printable. Organic electronics have been promised in almost every shape, size and configuration. They have been touted as an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional electronics: cheaper, easier and more sustainable to manufacture.
But are all these promises too good to be true?
As an emerging field, there is plenty of ongoing research into making the bold future of organic electronics possible. Current research is actively improving the utility and accessibility of these next-generation electronics. The applications are seemingly endless, from saving lives with improved medical devices to making green energy easier and cheaper to access. But more work is needed before organic electronics can be produced at scale and be widely available to the public.
What are organic electronics?
Organic electronics use components made from carbon instead of the silicon used in traditional electronics. These carbon-based components can be made using either small molecules or long polymers, like the materials used to make plastic. Importantly, the components need to have semiconducting properties for electronic applications. By taking advantage of the unique properties of carbon-based chemistry, components can be made biodegradable, biocompatible and even soluble for printable electronic inks. The final products can be flexible, rollable, stretchy and be applied to nearly any surface.
Leading applications of organic electronics include wearable devices, microscopic or clear electronics, flexible sensor technology and next-generation packaging. Biocompatible electronics have been proposed for improved medical devices such as glucose sensors for diabetics, heart rate monitors and other biometric tools.
You might already be using organic electronics
In some ways, organic electronics are already disrupting traditional electronic applications in our everyday lives. Although your smartphone is not currently biodegradable, organic electronics are making their way into consumer products.
One example is organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays that are quickly gaining in popularity in consumer electronics. OLEDs have several benefits over traditional LED/LCD displays, including their pixel precision. Because OLEDs are made with thin films and organic compounds, they can be manufactured to be as small as individual pixels. Each pixel in an OLED display can be individually controlled for increased precision in image control.
Additionally, OLEDs transform electricity directly into light—so no backlight is necessary, and devices can be both lighter and thinner. OLEDs create better blacks as pixels only emit light when turned on. This technology is behind Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip smartphone, which folds in half thanks to an OLED display made from a flexible polymer film with embedded circuitry.

How sustainable are organic electronics?
The ubiquity of electronics in our everyday lives has led to an unsustainable amount of electronic waste. It’s easy to overlook the scale and impact of this waste, but with each new smartphone release, consumers replace their existing technology with the latest and greatest model. At the moment, this electronic waste is not biodegradable and can be difficult and even dangerous to recycle. This stark reality has led many researchers and companies to look towards organic electronics as a more sustainable solution.
Beyond the scale of electronic waste, the rare metals and materials used in smartphones require mining. To keep up with manufacturing demands, the overall process of mineral extraction can be harmful to workers and the natural environment.
To illustrate the issue, the European Chemical Society created a version of the periodic table that represents the scarcity of many of the elements required for electronics manufacturing. This modified periodic table highlights that soon there may not even be enough of certain elements required for traditional electronics to meet consumer demands.

Organic components may be the answer to a circular economy for consumer and industrial electronics. However, as we’ve learned from the plastics industry, simply being made from carbon-based polymers is not necessarily a recipe for durability or biodegradation. Similar to plastics, sustainability needs to be considered from the start of organic electronic design to ensure a polymer that is functional and sustainable.
Additionally, even if an organic electronic device is biodegradable, careful research and regulation needs to ensure that intermediates of degradation are non-toxic to humans and the environment. Companies must also balance potential end-of-life biodegradation with device durability to handle the everyday wear, tear and temperature extremes experienced by consumer electronics. This is also an active area of research as companies aim to develop organic electronics that can scale for current market demands and usage.
Organic electronics can also be used to accelerate the adoption of green technology. For example, rollable solar cells can be created using polymer-based inks printed onto plastic sheets. The result is a cheaper alternative to traditional solar cells that can harness solar energy from nearly any surface.
Major players in the electronics industry are working towards the goal of improved sustainability. For example, in March, Hexagon and Altium announced a partnership to improve sustainability in the electronics industry using cloud-based solutions. Hexagon’s Nexus platform will be combined with Altium’s 365 platform to address sustainability in manufacturing and design, with the initial stage of the partnership focused on reducing electronic waste.
The future of organic electronics
One of the main problems facing organic electronics and the sustainability of the electronics industry is that it is often at odds with consumer demands. To truly improve the environmental impact of the industry, consumers need to shift their mindset from frequent turnover of electronic devices to more sustainable long-term use.
Alternatively, research needs to be accelerated to create truly end-of-life biodegradable products that don’t compromise on function or performance—a non-trivial challenge. Additionally, the chemistry involved in reducing toxicity of organic electronics also renders them less effective at biodegradation. A delicate balance must be reached whereby organic electronics can be biodegradable to improve their sustainability, while also remaining non-toxic to humans and the environment.
Much more research and development is required to bring organic electronics to a stage where our smartphones and other devices can be truly sustainable. Although ongoing research is headed in the right direction, engineers must continually push the boundaries of design with an eye towards a more sustainable future. Hopefully, this is just the beginning of a greener electronics industry.