Degradable Carrageenan as a Substrate and Resistive Material for Flexible Applications

In recent years, due to the environmental impact caused by electronic waste, decomposable components have become one of the most important topics in the world. In this study, the carrageenan material extracted from red algae was used as the resistance-switching layer of electronic components, and potassium was added to the carrageenan as a substrate (CK). CK has the advantages of excellent mechanical properties, transparency, and decomposability. In addition, the In/carrageenan/Ag/CK (ICACK) device exhibits good memory properties with a high ON/OFF ratio exceeding 10⁷ and a retention time exceeding 10⁴ s. Due to the doping of potassium ions, the ICACK element has a fairly good bending performance. Although bending or stretching under a small radius of curvature will not have a great impact on the electrical performance, it shows that in the future wearable or good potential in the field of implantable devices.