Biodegradable sensors screen-printed like t-shirts have been developed by engineers in Glasgow to bring more sustainable, digital methods to agriculture.
Scientists have designed compostable sensors from electronic materials which degrade into plant nutrients, acting as fertiliser to help crops grow.
The biodegradable front-end sensors are paired with conventional electronics to monitor crop health – in an agritech revolution that is digitising traditional farming.
Data from the sensors, which are sensitive to the changes in pH and temperature which can be caused by infections in crops, are collected by the electronic module. The data can be sent wirelessly to computers, which could in the future help farmers build up a detailed picture of the health of their crops.
Engineers from the University of Glasgow in collaboration with colleagues from the Łukasiewicz Institute of Microelectronics and Photonics (IMiF) in Poland think the breakthrough could improve crop yield and reduce electronic waste.
Dr Joseph Cameron, of the University of Glasgow’s James Watt School of Engineering, is a co-author of the paper.
He said: “Reliable food production is one of the world’s most pressing problems, with more than 800 million people around the world suffering from malnutrition today. Digital agriculture could be the key to maximising our ability to produce enough food for a growing population.”
Co-author Andrew Rollo, also of the James Watt School of Engineering, said: “The system we’ve developed could go a long way towards cutting down the carbon footprint of digital agriculture. The sensors themselves can be ploughed back into the fields to help nurture crops, and the electronic modules with less environmentally friendly printed circuit materials can be reused for several years.
“Our analysis suggested that replacing the sensors once every three months could reduce the environmental impact of the system by 66%, and 79% over five years compared to disposing of the entire device each time.”
Professor Jeff Kettle, who led the research, said: “We urgently need to find a way to make digital agriculture more sustainable in the years to come. Currently, around 80% of the world’s electronics head straight to landfill once they’ve reached the end of their useful life, which creates massive environmental and public health challenges from the toxic materials which many of them contain.”
He added: “We’re keen to continue expanding our biodegradable sensor’s ability to detect other key indicators of plant growth and soil health. That could include adding sensitivity to ‘forever chemicals’ like PFAs, which have significant environmental impact.”
In a paper published in the journal ACS Applied Electronic Materials, the team describe how they made a digital agriculture sensor from sustainable materials, combining a biodegradable patch with a matchbook-sized reuseable electronic module. The sensorpatches are manufactured using a screen printing process, similar to that used in t-shirt printing. This low-cost, low-energy method of manufacturing could help enable the large-scale deployment necessary for the wider adoption of digital agriculture around the world.
