fairfolio
Saved Projects

The Textile Strength of Homemade Bioplastic

CSEF · 2019 Applied Mechanics & Structures Third Award

Brianna H. Vu · Fairmont Private Junior High School, Anaheim, Orange County

Overview

Objectives Our ecosystem is suffering from a major problem that includes only one thing: plastics. Plastics tarnish our air and cause damage to many sea creatures. Well that is a problem that needs to be fixed. The purpose of my science fair project is to find an alternative for plastics that will not harm the environment. Instead, it will help the environment thrive from it. Plastics are harming our present day world more than anything, and I am trying to find a way to stop this by making a substitute for plastics. My question for my project is "Which alternative bioplastic mixture will be the best replacement for plastics?" Methods First, I created 20 bioplastic samples, 5 samples of each material made. Meaning, I had 5 samples for corn, potato, tapioca starch, and agar. After the bioplastic process was complete, I cut them all into equal sizes, dimensions, and lengths to test their strength. To test their strength, I drilled a hole in the center of the sample and attached a ribbon to it. I than had a hanging scale where I would pull on the sample onto the scale until the sample would break. The scale would give me the amount of weight that I applied in order to break the sample. The weight of the sample signifies how much weight was needed in order to break the sample. I than repeated the strength method for all of the samples and averaged out their average amount of weight/strength in order to break the sample. I also included temperature for a diversity in strength testing of the bioplastic. Results I averaged the amount of strength required to break the sample at each temperature. At 21oC, tapioca had an average strength capacity of 2.3 kg per cm, agar had 6.8 kg, corn had 5.0 kg, and potato had 3.6 kg. At 3oC, tapioca had an average strength capacity of 2.6 kg per cm, agar had 7.5 kg, corn had 6.4 kg, and potato had 3.7 kg. At -15oC, tapioca had a strength of 3.8 kg per cm, agar had 9.3 kg, corn had 8.9 kg, and potato had 4.5 kg. At 38oC, tapioca had a strength capacity of 3.6 kg per cm, agar had 5.4 kg, corn had 5.0 kg, and potato had 2.4 kg. Lastly, at 66oC, tapioca had a strength capacity of 2.8 kg per cm, agar had 3.1 kg, corn had 3.4 kg, and potato had 2.2 kg. In the end agar performed the strongest, than corn, potato, and tapioca starch. Conclusions In conclusion, my hypothesis was incorrect! My hypothesis stated: If I were to make 4 bioplastic mixtures using agar, starch, potatoes, and corn, then the corn would be the strongest because it is a commonly used bioplastic substance that is already manufactured. Agar turned out to be the strongest compound out of all 4

Summary statement

To help save our environment, I created a bioplastic substance from naturally occurring materials and tested their strength to see which substance performed the strongest.

Help received

Throughout this project, I have been lucky to have such a supportive teacher who is always willing to help me out whenever I would need it. My family has always been by my side and I appreciate that the most. Lastly, I presented to some seniors for presentational advice.

Awards (1)

Competition history

  • CSEF 2019 Applied Mechanics & Structures · Entry J0326

Resources

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

Source: California Science & Engineering Fair public projects

Save projects to your library

Sign in with Google to keep track of projects you find interesting, organized into folders. An account also raises your daily allowance for “Has this been done?”, and lets you create a key for the MCP server with a much higher limit than anonymous use. Browsing stays public.

Continue with Google