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Surface Engineering of Bioplastics

AJAS · 2024 Materials Science and Engineering (inferred)

Michael Zhu · Ohio Academy of Science, The

Overview

Biopolymeric materials have long been an area of interest, since they are more environmentally friendly than petroleum-derived plastics. Bioplastics can be more widely adopted if they can meet the performance requirements of various applications, one of such requirement being surface engineering, which this investigation explores. The goal of the experiment was to tailor the surface properties of these biopolymeric materials. Thus, the hypothesis predicted that it was possible to tailor the surface properties by incorporating hydrophilic or hydrophobic additives, which would tailor the bioplastics to become more hydrophilic or hydrophobic correspondingly. Pertinent materials involved included corn starch, potato starch, rice starch, agar agar, paraffin wax, EBS wax, Polysorbate 80, water, glycerol. The methodology used was to fabricate samples of bioplastics from the corn, potato, agar, and rice starch, flatten the samples into sheets using a hot press, drop water onto the samples, then measure the contact angle of their surfaces using an iPhone app, Contact Angle Measurement by Tomoyuki Mikami. The hypothesis was supported. It was possible to tailor the surface properties of bioplastics and tailor them to become more hydrophilic and hydrophobic. Different bioplastics and additives rendered different surface properties. By tuning the surface properties, an environment of an expanded usage of bioplastics is created, as biopolymers will be able to meet the surface requirements of packaging, health care, automotive, and other industries, which in turn decreases pollution. However, more research is needed to further improve different properties for widespread usage to eventually replace petroleum-derived polymers.

Competition history

  • AJAS 2024 Category not listed

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Source: AAAS Annual Meeting (Confex) / American Junior Academy of Science

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