ABSTRACT Electronic waste is a growing global challenge, driving the need for eco‐friendly materials and sustainable device architectures. Biodegradable and transient electronics have emerged as promising solutions by enabling controlled degradation and material recovery. Chitosan, a widely abundant biomaterial derived from chitin, has attracted significant attention due to its biocompatibility, biodegradability, and versatile chemical functionality. These properties enable its integration across multiple electronic components, supporting the development of fully or partially biodegradable systems. Chitosan has been widely employed as a dielectric layer in transistors, an ionic conductor, a transparent flexible electrode, and as a host or scaffold in electronic devices. Despite extensive research, existing reviews typically focus on specific applications or broader material classes, leaving a gap in understanding how chitosan can be systematically integrated into complete electronic architectures. This review provides a comprehensive and structured analysis of chitosan's properties and its integration into key device components, including electrodes, transistors, memory devices, optoelectronics, energy systems, and scaffolds. By adopting a component‐based framework, this work highlights the potential of chitosan as a unifying platform for the development of next‐generation sustainable and biodegradable electronic technologies.
Mcdonald et al. (Tue,) studied this question.