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First fully recyclable, sub-micrometer printed electronics could reshape how displays are made

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First fully recyclable, sub-micrometer printed electronics could reshape how displays are made


A fully printed carbon nanotube thin-film transistor with an ion gel gate printed on top of flexible Kapton, capable of bending around a rod with a two-millimeter diameter. Kapton is commonly used in a variety of demanding applications such as flexible printed circuits and high-temperature electronics. Credit: Aaron Franklin, Duke University

Electrical engineers at Duke University have demonstrated the ability to print fully functional and recyclable electronics at sub-micrometer scales. The technique could impact the more than $150 billion electronic display industry and its environmental impact while providing a toehold for U.S. manufacturing to gain traction in a vital and quickly growing industry.

The research appears in the journal Nature Electronics.

“If we want to seriously increase U.S.-based manufacturing in areas dominated by global competitors, we need transformational technologies,” said Aaron Franklin, the Edmund T. Pratt, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Chemistry at Duke.

“Our process prints carbon-based transistors that can be fully recycled and provide comparable performance to industry standards. It’s too promising of a result not to be given further attention.”

Electronic displays play a key role across just about every industry: think TVs, computer screens, watch faces and car displays. Nearly all of them are made overseas, mostly in South Korea, China and Taiwan.

The has a significant due to the greenhouse gas emissions and enormous energy footprint required by vacuum-based processing. And to top it off, according to a United Nations estimate, less than a quarter of the millions of pounds of electronics thrown away each year are recycled.

  • Printing technique could vastly improve the environmental impact of digital displays
    A closeup look at the tiny needle used in the Hummink printing technology. The needle is essentially attached to a tuning fork, which moves the needle rapidly above the printing surface. Natural competing surface energies pull tiny amounts of ink out to print designs with submicrometer precision. Credit: Alex Sanchez, Duke University
  • Printing technique could vastly improve the environmental impact of digital displays
    Credit: Alex Sanchez, Duke University

Several years ago, Franklin’s laboratory developed the world’s first fully recyclable printed electronics. That demonstration, however, used aerosol jet printing that can’t form features smaller than 10 micrometers, greatly limiting their potential applications in the world of consumer electronics.

In the new research, Franklin and his colleagues worked with Hummink Technologies to break through this size barrier. Their “high precision capillary printing” machines use natural competing surface energies to pull tiny amounts of ink out of an equally tiny pipette. This is the same phenomenon that makes paper towels so absorbent, as liquid is drawn into the narrow spaces between their fibers.

“We sent Hummink some of our inks and had some promising results,” said Franklin. “But it wasn’t until we got one of their printers here at Duke that my group could harness its real potential.”

The researchers used three carbon-based inks made from carbon nanotubes, graphene and nanocellulose that can be easily printed onto rigid substrates like glass and silicon or flexible substrates like paper or other environmentally friendly surfaces. These are essentially the same inks that were originally demonstrated in Franklin’s previous research, but with tweaked fluid properties that allow them to work with the Hummink printers.

In the demonstration, they show this combination of novel ink and hardware can print features tens of micrometers long with small, submicrometer-sized gaps between them.

These small, consistently formed gaps form the channel length of the carbon-based thin-film transistors (TFTs), with smaller channel dimensions translating to strong electrical performance. And it’s these kinds of transistors that form the backplane control of all flat-panel displays.

“These types of fabrication approaches will never replace silicon-based, high-performance computer chips, but there are other markets where we think they could be competitive—and even transformative,” said Franklin.

Behind every digital display in the world is a huge array of microscopic thin-film transistors that control each pixel. While OLED displays require more current and need at least two transistors for each pixel, LCD displays require only one.

  • Printing technique could vastly improve the environmental impact of digital displays
    A fully printed carbon nanotube thin-film transistor with an ion gel gate printed on top of flexible Kapton, capable of bending around a rod with a two-millimeter diameter. Kapton is commonly used in a variety of demanding applications such as flexible printed circuits and high-temperature electronics. Credit: Aaron Franklin, Duke University
  • Printing technique could vastly improve the environmental impact of digital displays
    The Duke University logo printed with microscopic precision with silver nanoparticles, demonstrating the abilities of the Hummink printers. Credit: Aaron Franklin, Duke University

In a previous study, the researchers were able to demonstrate their printed, recyclable transistors driving a few pixels of an LCD display. And Franklin believes the new submicrometer printed TFTs are close to having the performance needed for demonstrating the same for OLED displays.

While there are other potential use cases for this technology, such as squeezing more sensors into a chip’s footprint to increase its accuracy, Franklin believes digital displays are the most promising. Besides being fully recyclable, the printing process requires much less energy and produces many fewer than traditional TFT manufacturing methods.

“Displays being fabricated with something similar to this technique is the most feasible large-scale application I’ve ever had come out of my lab,” said Franklin.

“The only real obstacle, to me, is getting sufficient investment and interest in addressing the remaining obstacles to realizing the considerable potential.”

“Unfortunately, the National Science Foundation program that we were pursuing funding from to continue working on this, called the Future Manufacturing program, was cut earlier this year. But we’re hoping to find a fit in a different program in the near future.”

More information:
Brittany N. Smith, et al. Capillary flow printing of submicrometre carbon nanotube transistors, Nature Electronics (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41928-025-01470-7

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Duke University


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First fully recyclable, sub-micrometer printed electronics could reshape how displays are made (2025, October 17)
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Home Depot Is Handing Out Free Power Tools With Some Purchases

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Home Depot Is Handing Out Free Power Tools With Some Purchases


Fall is for nesting—and for feathering your nest with whatever will keep you sane during the winter. Which is why a number of retailers, including The Home Depot, drop prices on home goods with big fall deals.

The Home Depot fall savings event for 2025 is unusually broad, because The Home Depot itself is unusually broad—the store that first brought the home improvement superstore nationwide. This fall, The Home Depot sports discounts of 15 to 50 percent on home decor, mattresses, cookware, bed and bath, Milwaukee power tools, and the old football season staple: the mini-fridge.

Here’s a roadmap to The Home Depot fall deals in 2025. Follow the link here for even more deals and coupons from The Home Depot this month.

Biggest Home Depot Fall Deals in 2025

By percentage, the biggest deals The Home Depot is offering this fall are among cutlery, wall shelving, and basically everything having to do with bedding. Among knives, The Home Depot is offering half off on Japanese-made Kiyoshi and Damashiro knives put out by Australian knife brand Cuisine Pro—nearly all of which have full-tang stainless steel blades. (See WIRED’s guide to the best chef’s knives.)

Some of the more esoteric wall shelving is on hefty discount as well, including a decorative hexagonal wall shelf that’s half off, and a cushioned bench with shelves underneath.

The Home Depot Fall Mattress, Bedding, and Linen Deals

The Home Depot is offering some of its steepest price cuts on bedding and bathroom linens, as the thread count on sheets (which kinda doesn’t matter) becomes a sudden concern amid chilling temps. This includes the following:

See also WIRED’s guides to the best mattresses, and the best bedsheets.

Rare Deals on Milwaukee Tools at The Home Depot

WIRED reviewer Scott Gilbertson swears by century-old tool brand Milwaukee Tool, which rarely shows up on sale, as a smart investment across your tool set.

“The smart way to buy battery-powered tools is to invest in a single brand,” Gilbertson writes. “Most of the expense is in the batteries, and batteries are not interchangeable between tool brands (technically, there are adapters, but I’ve had bad experiences with them and do not recommend them). Many years ago, surveying the market at the time, I landed on Milwaukee, which so far as I could tell had the leading battery tech at the time, and good tools to boot. Since then I’ve purchased and used dozens of their tools, from impact guns to circular saws to specialty tools like a drywall screw gun.”



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Some of Our Favorite Noise-Canceling Headphones Are $100 Off if You Act Fast

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Some of Our Favorite Noise-Canceling Headphones Are 0 Off if You Act Fast


Bose is well known for its noise-canceling headphones and earbuds, and the high-end QuietComfort Ultra (9/10, WIRED Recommends) are currently marked down to just $329 on Amazon, with the same discount at Best Buy. You’ll have to move fast, though, as both sites feature countdown timers with less than 24 hours remaining as I write this.

Photograph: Ryan Waniata

The QuietComfort Ultra sit right near the top of our list of the best noise-canceling headphones, and for good reason. They sound great, with top-tier clarity and detail, and our reviewer Ryan Waniata was particularly impressed by the “fabulous instrumental separation” and the “wide and spacious soundstage.” The bass is a little boomy out of the box, but a quick tweak of the EQ can smooth that right out, and even if you prefer the big bass, it’s still clear and punchy. They sound just as good during phone calls, in case you really need to focus in while working or chatting.

The noise-canceling is the star here, and there are really only two companies that compete for the crown, Bose and Sony. Each company has flagship headsets that do a stellar job of keeping out plane engine noises, crying babies, and your chatty seat neighbor, with performance so close we have a dedicated guide comparing the two. There’s also a great transparency mode for when you need to stay a little more alert, but want to keep the music going.

There are some other features that we’re less enthusiastic about, like a spatial audio mode that tries to “spatialize” existing stereo tracks, which is a neat trick for some songs, but less so for more produced music or watching videos. There’s optional head-tracking as well that tries to keep sound coming from the same places as you turn around. They’re both a little gimmicky and don’t help with the QuietComfort Ultra’s already-middling 24 hours of battery life.

Even though Bose recently updated these extremely popular headphones, the newer version isn’t massively different from these. That means these are still a great deal, and one of our favorite noise-canceling headsets, despite being on the market for a few years. Its price compared to some of its biggest competitors was a downside, so the $100 discount makes a big difference if that was a deciding factor.



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Ex-McLaren boss could take the wheel at Porsche

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Ex-McLaren boss could take the wheel at Porsche


Porsche has been struggling with Chinese competition and US tariffs.

The former head of British supercar maker McLaren could take over as CEO of Porsche, the German firm said Friday, as it struggles with weak demand and a troubled shift to electric cars.

Michael Leiters, who headed McLaren from 2022 to April this year, “is available as a potential successor” to current chief executive Oliver Blume, and talks will be initiated, Porsche said in a statement.

Blume has for several years been boss of both Volkswagen and Porsche, one of the German titan’s subsidiaries, but has faced pressure to drop the dual role and focus on overhauling the broader VW group.

Leiters previously worked at Porsche for 13 years as well as at Italy’s Ferrari.

Blume, meanwhile, will remain CEO of Volkswagen Group, signing a five-year term that begins January 1, the company said Friday.

“In the last three years, Oliver Blume has impressively demonstrated his ability to advance and develop the Volkswagen Group’s strategy and business operations in a challenging environment,” VW’s board chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch said in a statement.

Talks will begin with Blume about “a mutually agreed early termination” of his CEO post, Porsche added. German newspaper Bild reported that Blume would give up the CEO role next year.

Like other German carmakers, Porsche has been struggling with weak demand in Europe and fierce competition in China, while tariffs in the United States, its top market, have added to headwinds.

Last month, the maker of the iconic 911 sports car also hit the brakes on its shift to electric vehicles, saying demand had increased more slowly than expected.

It announced measures including delays in introducing some fully electric cars and extending the lifespan of some combustion engine and hybrid models, with VW warning the changes would deliver a hefty financial hit.

In February, Porsche announced 1,900 job losses and has warned of more cost cuts ahead. And last month it was excluded from Germany’s blue-chip DAX stock index after its shares tanked.

The broader VW group, which makes 10 different brands including Audi and Skoda, has been struggling with the same issues afflicting Porsche. It announced last year plans to cut 35,000 jobs in Germany by 2030.

© 2025 AFP

Citation:
Ex-McLaren boss could take the wheel at Porsche (2025, October 17)
retrieved 17 October 2025
from https://techxplore.com/news/2025-10-mclaren-boss-wheel-porsche.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.





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