Bamboo-based plastic can be made to biodegrade quickly, but hold up in tough conditions

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Photo by Maksim Shutov on Unsplash
Photo by Maksim Shutov on Unsplash

International researchers have developed a method for making bamboo-based plastic which they say is strong enough to be used for industrial purposes but able to biodegrade in soil within 50 days. The researchers say organic-based plastics like these are often unable to handle tough conditions, making them unusable in areas such as infrastructure. They say their plastic is made by breaking down bamboo cellulose using an alcohol solvent, then modifying the cellulose to build back stronger as a tough plastic material. When tested, the product was able to match or outperform traditional plastics when it came to shapability, mechanical stability and withstanding temperatures, the researchers say.

Media release

From: Springer Nature

Material science: Biodegradable bamboo plastic as strong as regular plastic

A new method to produce strong, biodegradable plastic from bamboo is reported in Nature Communications this week. The bioplastic resembles oil-based plastics in strength, shapeability, and thermal stability but can biodegrade in soil within 50 days, presenting a new pathway towards sustainable plastic alternatives.

Plastics made from organic biomass (such as bamboo composite plastics) have shown promise in replacing traditional oil-based plastics. However, widespread adoption has been limited by their inferior mechanical properties, meaning they are unable to be used in demanding applications such as infrastructure. Additionally, bamboo composite plastics are typically composed of bamboo fibres immersed in a plastic or resin, and thus cannot be completely degraded, undermining efforts to find truly sustainable solutions to oil-based plastics.

Haipeng Yu, Dawei Zhao, and colleagues describe a non-toxic, alcohol solvent-based method to dissolve bamboo cellulose down to a molecular level, then direct the cellulose molecules to reassemble and organise into a tough plastic material. During dissolution, the cellulose is chemically modified to aid the formation of a strong molecular network upon regeneration. The bamboo plastic was tested against several types of widely used commercial plastics (such as polylactic acid and high impact polystyrene) with the bamboo plastic displaying a tensile strength of 110 megapascals (a unit of pressure) and work of fracture (the force required to fracture a material) of 80 kJ m-3, surpassing the traditional plastics and existing bioplastics. The bamboo plastic also matched or outperformed traditional plastics in tests of mechanical and thermal stability, and shapeability, presenting it as a viable alternative for use in industry. Additionally, the bamboo plastic can be degraded in soil within 50 days or closed-loop recycled (where objects are recycled and used to remake similar products) whilst retaining 90% of its original strength, demonstrating its potential as a sustainable but high performing alternative to traditional plastic materials.

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Journal/
conference:
Nature Communications
Research:Paper
Organisation/s: Northeast Forestry University, China
Funder: H.Y. acknowledges the support by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2023YFD2200504) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 32330072). D.Z. acknowledges the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 32171720 and 32371823) and the Liaoning Province Xingliao Talents Leading Talent Program (Grant No. XLYC2402043).
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