Laser processes for the secondary agro industry packaging

The goal of this thesis is to study the reliability of the LIG (Laser Induced Graphene) process applied to the realization of smart tags for the secondary agro industry packaging. The LIG process consists in the localized pyrolysis of carbon-based substrates after a direct laser treatment, which induces a photothermal reaction on the surface of the substrate. Thanks to this mechanism, carbon atoms are rearranged to form graphitic structures. In this way conductive porous graphene can be patterned on the material’s surface. Nowadays, the secondary agro industrial sector results to be a huge source of worldwide resource consumption. To optimize the resource employment and hence to avoid wastes, smart packaging solutions can be significantly useful and so be integrated in the supply chain. The LIG process, applied to secondary agro industry packaging materials, can significantly decrease the usage of fossil-based materials enabling to integrate advanced functionalities to the package; such as implementing an integrated antenna for monitoring the product handling and storage conditions. This makes it possible to add functionalities to the package without the need for any labels or inks. Emission frequency, resolution, number of repetitions, scan velocity and the emitting power of the laser can be adjusted to achieve the optimal level of homogeneity of the grown graphene and at the same time to avoid the formation of burnt areas all around the pattern. In this study, the optimization of the LIG process and the subsequent DC and frequency characterization of the implemented graphene tracks have been performed. This also allows to achieve a high degree of flexibility in terms of shape and design of the pattern.