End-of-Waste SiC-Based Flexible Substrates with Tunable Electrical Properties for Electronic Applications

We demonstrated the suitability of polymer composites filled with silicon carbide (SiC) powders derived from a recycling process for applications in electronic devices manufacturing. SiC powders have been synthesized from the process byproducts and used as fillers in the formulation of polystyrene (PS)/SiC composites, which have been used in the preparation of substrates using the solution-casting technique. Different substrates have been prepared by changing the concentration of SiC in the composite in the range from 6.7 to 67 wt % and used in simple electronic devices by performing gold contacts in both planar and stacked configurations. The electrical behaviors of both stacked and planar devices were investigated in direct current (DC) and alternate current (AC) regimes. The experimental results showed that charge percolation could be considered an explanation for the abrupt change in the differential conductivity observed around 30 wt %. Fowler–Nordheim tunneling at high fields has been found to be co...