Scientists are making considerable efforts to develop degradable or recyclable polymers using inedible plant material, for example lignocellulosic biomass, with the aim of finding alternatives to plastic . However, producing competitive plastics with biomass is not an easy task.
Plastic, which is so present in our lives, is a low-cost material, has thermal stability, mechanical resistance, is easily processed and is compatible , characteristics that any alternative has at least to match. We are talking about a challenge.
Now, it seems that we are close to overcoming that challenge. A group of researchers led by Jeremy Luterbacher, from the School of Basic Sciences at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), has successfully developed a plastic derived from biomass, similar to PET , that meets the criteria to replace various plastics. current and that, in addition, is more respectful with the environment.
“Basically, we just have to ‘cook’ wood or other inedible plant material, such as agricultural waste, into cheap chemicals to produce the plastic precursor in one step,” Luterbacher says. “By keeping the sugar structure intact within the molecular structure of the plastic, the chemistry is much simpler than current alternatives.”
The technique consists of adding an aldehyde to stabilize certain fractions of the plant matter and prevent it from being destroyed during extraction. In this way, scientists were able to reconstruct a new bio-based chemical useful as a precursor to plastic.
“Using a different aldehyde (glyoxylic acid instead of formaldehyde), we were able to simply attach ‘sticky’ groups to both sides of the sugar molecules, allowing them to act as plastic building blocks,” explains Lorenz Manker, first author “Using this simple technique, we are able to convert up to 25% by weight of agricultural waste, or 95% of purified sugar, into plastic.”
These plastics have such properties that they could be used to make containers, make textiles and even in the field of medicine and electronics . Researchers have already made films for packaging, fibers that could be spun into clothing or other fabrics, and filaments for 3D printing.
“Plastic has very interesting properties, especially for applications like food packaging,” says Luterbacher. “And what makes plastic unique is the presence of the sugar structure intact. This makes it incredibly easy to manufacture, because you don’t have to modify what nature gives us, and easy to degrade, because it can be to a molecule that is already abundant in nature.
Referencia: Manker, L., Luterbacher, J. et. al. 2022. Sustainable polyesters via direct functionalization of lignocellulosic sugars. Nature Chemistry. DOI: 10.1038/s41557-022-00974-5
