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From Food Waste to Food Guard: Creating A Novel Chitosan Bioplastic Using Nanoparticle Coating and Its Unique Effect on Food Packaging and Preservation

JSHS · 2022

Henry Yao, Mark Hiza · Lynbrook High School, San Jose, CA

Overview

Plastics, despite their benefits in transforming our lives in multiple aspects, have caused serious environmental and aquatic pollution. The objective of this project is to create low-cost, sustainable chitosan bioplastic, explore its unique antimicrobial application in food preservation, and design a novel approach to solve the water permeability challenge. Chitosan, the second most abundant polymer made from shells of shellfish, is selected as the base material. Development process includes heating, molding, drying/cooling to create chitosan bioplastic films. Second, chitosan bioplastic was evaluated against conventional plastics on tensile strength, water permeability, and water/soil degradability. Results showed that chitosan bioplastic can sustain similar tensile strength as conventional plastics, but possess distinctive environmental advantages in water dissolution under a week and soil degradation within 90-days. Third, to explore chitosan’s antimicrobial application, it was discovered through repeated tests that chitosan bioplastic created from this project could prolong perishable fruits’ shelf-life by five times compared with conventional plastic, generating unique economic values in food preservation. Lastly, to solve the water permeability challenge, silicon dioxide nanoparticle coating was created to apply to chitosan bioplastic films using Langmuir-Blodgett technique, which improved its water-resistance by raising the water contact angle from 40-60 up to 124-degrees. Chitosan bioplastic created from this project has proved to be a next-gen low-cost and eco-friendly alternative to conventional plastics. In addition, the unique antimicrobial application in food preservation and significant improvement in water resistance through nanoparticle coating have made chitosan bioplastic a unique and highly viable bioplastic option for food packaging and preservation. WASHINGTON

Competition history

  • JSHS 2022 Category not listed

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