Researchers from Glasgow University have developed a new electronic tag that could serve as an environmentally friendly alternative to the roughly 30 billion-plus single-use radio frequency identification (RFID) tags that are landfilled each year.
Device prototype with thermal camera. Source: Glasgow UniversityThe tags are manufactured using inexpensive coils and a sensing material derived from a type of silicon rubber (PDMS) and carbon fibers. The coils are smaller than those employed in credit cards, and they absorb electromagnetic signals from a hand-held reader via electromagnetic waves.
The researchers explained: “The new technology we’ve developed uses materials which are cheap and widely available, and the tags can be manufactured using a simple, scalable process. Our hope is that those unique characteristics could help the technology become widely-adopted in the years to come, helping to reduce the environmental harms currently being caused by single-use RFID tags.”
The researchers suggested that the new tags could potentially reduce the retail sector’s reliance on RFID chips, which are composed of a difficult to recycle combination of paper, plastic, silicon and metal.
Additionally, the team believes that the tags could help create future generations of ‘smart packaging’ for measuring pH or humidity, thus offering retailers warnings when food is at risk of spoiling or carrying harmful bacteria. Further, the tags could also potentially be used in healthcare and smart clothing, for unobtrusively monitoring wearers’ vital signs.
In the lab, the sensors detected variations in temperature between 20° C and 110° C — the range most appropriate for food safety and medical applications.
The team also determined during trials that multiple tags can be read simultaneously.
For more on the tags, watch the accompanying video that appears courtesy of the University of Glasgow.
