DissolvPCB: Fully Recyclable 3D-Printed Electronics with Liquid Metal Conductors and PVA Substrates
summary
A fully recyclable PCB fabrication pipeline uses PVA substrate printed on consumer FDM printers and injected EGaIn conductors, with an open-source KiCad→FreeCAD plugin to auto‑generate 3D-printable substrates. Traces reliably print down to 0.7 mm with 0.15 mm XY and 0.18 mm Z spacing, carry up to 5 A, and transmit waveforms up to 10 MHz. Prototypes include a double-sided ESP32 Bluetooth speaker, a 3D-routed fidget toy, and a Joule‑heated shape‑changing gripper; recycling yields 97.9% EGaIn and 94.2% PVA and cuts impact by ≥40%.
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chapters (10)
- 0:00Introduction and overview
- 1:21Problem of e-waste and PCB challenges
- 3:51DissolvPCB architecture and materials
- 5:57Software workflow for 3D PCB design
- 7:00Fabrication and recycling process
- 8:46Complex circuit demonstrations
- 9:29Performance and design boundaries
- 10:34Environmental impact and recycling results
- 11:39Broader impact and future work
- 11:59Q&A and conclusion
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