Circular economy electrochemistry: recycling old mixed material additively manufactured sensors into new electroanalytical sensing platforms

Crapnell, Robert D ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8701-3933, Sigley, Evelyn, Williams, Rhys J, Brine, Tom, Garcia-Miranda Ferrari, Alejandro ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1797-1519, Kalinke, Cristiane, Janegitz, Bruno C, Bonacin, Juliano A and Banks, Craig E ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0756-9764 (2023) Circular economy electrochemistry: recycling old mixed material additively manufactured sensors into new electroanalytical sensing platforms. ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, 11 (24). pp. 9183-9193. ISSN 2168-0485

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Abstract

Recycling used mixed material additively manufactured electroanalytical sensors into new 3D-printing filaments (both conductive and non-conductive) for the production of new sensors is reported herein. Additively manufactured (3D-printed) sensing platforms were transformed into a non-conductive filament for fused filament fabrication through four different methodologies (granulation, ball-milling, solvent mixing, and thermal mixing) with thermal mixing producing the best quality filament, as evidenced by the improved dispersion of fillers throughout the composite. Utilizing this thermal mixing methodology, and without supplementation with the virgin polymer, the filament was able to be cycled twice before failure. This was then used to process old sensors into an electrically conductive filament through the addition of carbon black into the thermal mixing process. Both recycled filaments (conductive and non-conductive) were utilized to produce a new electroanalytical sensing platform, which was tested for the cell's original application of acetaminophen determination. The fully recycled cell matched the electrochemical and electroanalytical performance of the original sensing platform, achieving a sensitivity of 22.4 ± 0.2 μA μM^-1, a limit of detection of 3.2 ± 0.8 μM, and a recovery value of 95 ± 5% when tested using a real pharmaceutical sample. This study represents a paradigm shift in how sustainability and recycling can be utilized within additively manufactured electrochemistry toward promoting circular economy electrochemistry.