Caroline GOUMENT defended her PhD on December 19th, 2023.
Place : amphitheatre Émilie du Châtelet of the Marie Curie Library at INSA Lyon
Jury :
Rapporteurs :
Luc AVEROUS, Professeur, Université de Strasbourg
Thierry BARRIERE, Professeur, Université de Franche-Comté
Examinateurs :
Pierre DUMONT, Professeur, INSA Lyon, Université de Lyon
Cécile VENET, Docteur, Schneider Electric (Grenoble)
Invités:
Benoît BLOTTIERE, Maître de Conférences HDR, Université Jean-Monnet Saint Etienne
Nicolas DUGUET, Maître de Conférences HDR, UCB Lyon 1, Université de Lyon
Encadrement :
Bruno ALLARD, Professeur, AMPERE INSA Lyon, Directeur de thèse
Michel CABRERA, Chargé de Recherche CNRS, AMPERE INSA Lyon, Co-encadrant
Jean-Yves CHARMEAU, Professeur, IMP INSA Lyon, Co-encadrant
Abstract :
In the majority of cases, electronic objects in our everyday life have a plastic casing made of petrochemical polymer materials. Today, replacing the petrochemical-based materials with more environmentally-friendly ones is a necessary transition. 3D plastronics is an emerging field of research than can overcome some of the limitations of conventional electronics, particularly as it requires to redefine the polymer substrates. This PhD is part of the BIOANTENNA project of the AURA Region’s Ambition Research Pack, whose goal is to manufacture an innovative electronic device in terms of the materials used and the functionalities of the electronic circuit. In this thesis, we study a mass production process for electronic devices called In-Mold Electronics (IME). It comprises three main stages: screen printing, thermoforming and injection molding. In the state of the art, the reference polymer in IME is PolyCarbonate (PC). Our goal is to replace PC with a more environmentally-friendly material: Poly(Lactic Acid) (PLA). Over the last ten years, this polymer has been the subject of numerous studies in order to use it as an alternative to petrochemical-based engineering polymers. PLA is the most widely used biosourced polymer today. It is also biodegradable in industrial composting, which could provide a solution for end-of-life products and make it suitable for use in the circular economy.
This manuscript is divided in two main parts.
First, a state-of-the-art on plastronics compared to conventional electronics introduces the process of interest in this work, IME. The materials and substrates used in IME are also presented with a summary of their properties and main areas of application. The experimental work is then detailed along two axes, the polymers and the materials for electronics, in which all the analyses and results are summarized with a final discussion concerning the parameter choices for IME on PLA. Finally, the implementation of choices and the parameter optimization for all-PLA IME are detailed with the presentation of a demonstrator. With regards to the electronic circuit functionalities, the first tests were performed to manufacture capacitors and antennas in IME with PC and PLA, with the intention of conceiving an electronic circuit for energy recovery and storage.
In the second main part, a state-of-the-art introduces the valorization and recycling methods of today’s most common electronic devices. Experimental work regarding the dismantling of our plastronic devices made by IME in PLA is then detailed. PLA’s recyclability is an advantage to pave the way for a circular economy around IME, at the time when the dismantling of conventional electronic devices is a major issue. To our knowledge, the recycling of plastronic devices by chemical means is not described in the literature. Furthermore, a contribution of this work is a proposal for a new dismantling process to then enable recycling. The dismantling choices are introduced with a comparative study of various selective solvents to dissolve the PLA structure. Two chemical reactions (alcoholysis and hydrolysis) are compared for the chemical recycling of PLA in order to determine the most efficient method in terms of depolymerization parameters (temperature, time, material amount, etc).
Keywords: PolyLActic Acid, 3D Plastronics, In-Mold Electronics, PolyCarbonate, Dismantling, Chemical Recycling, Biosourced Polymer