News/Research

Wireless Heater Made From a Leaf Skeleton Is Fully Biodegradable

01 Aug, 2022

Wireless Heater Made From a Leaf Skeleton Is Fully Biodegradable

DE student Katherine Song's research is featured in IEEE Spectrum in an article by Evan Ackerman titled "Wireless Heater Made From a Leaf Skeleton Is Fully Biodegradable." The article shares how a leaf, shellfish bits, paper, and silver ink are all you need for a reusable wireless heater.

From the article:

Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and Accenture Labs are putting this idea to the test with the design of a wireless heater that can warm up whatever’s placed inside of it when the heater is placed on a standard wireless charging pad. This recyclable heater, made from paper, bits of shellfish, silver nanowires, and leaf skeletons, can warm a batch of cookies to 70 °C, but will degrade into compost in just a few months.

We believe that there exists a space of “semi-permanent” technological design that biological, decomposable materials are well-suited for… If we prioritize the decomposability of materials in our design, can we design interfaces that are durable and have enhanced functionality without sacrificing the convenience of responsible disposability? —Katherine W. Song et al.

Read the article here!