A team of researchers led by the University of Coimbra (UC) has developed a plastic substitute from nanocellulose combined with a fibrous mineral, totally biodegradable and biocompatible.
In a press release sent to the Lusa agency, the UC stated that the new material has several applications, from “Food packaging and electronic printing, opening doors to the manufacture of more sustainable plastics”.
According to the statement, the new material was developed in the last three years, in partnership with the Polytechnic Institute of Tomar (IPT) and the University of Beira Interior (UBI), with the collaboration of the Spanish company TOLSA.
This new ecological solution, “which, in practice, translates into a new class of composite films”, was produced from nanocellulose, “obtained through mechanical, chemical and enzymatic processes, combined with a fibrous mineral, a geological resource that allows reduce costs and improve mechanical and barrier properties that are very important”.
Quoted in the statement, José Gamelas and Luís Alves, coordinator of the project and principal investigator of the study, respectively, explained that the mechanical properties derive from the fact that the films “have to be resistant”, while the barrier properties are related to impermeability. to gases. [dos filmes]that is, resistance to the environment”.
According to the two researchers from the Chemical Process Engineering and Forest Products Research Center (CIEPQPF) of the Faculty of Science and Technology (FCTUC), “The great novelty” of this new substitute for plastic is the use of fibrous minerals, “which do not pose any risk to healthand also the preparation of films by filtration, which greatly speeds up the production process”.
“For example, with the conventional process it can take a week to obtain the films, while with the filtration method we can have the same films in a few hours and with better properties,” they guaranteed.
So far, the results obtained in the investigation “they are very promising, showing that this could be a viable future solution. Increasing the production scale, optimizing processes and exploring the properties of these films for other applications, such as the restoration of old books, will be the next steps in the project”, José Gamelas and Luís Alves revealed.
“Although the project was designed for food packaging and printed electronics, there are many other applications that can benefit from this solutionsuch as the conservation/restoration of important paper documents that present problems of degradation with aging”, they add.
The two scientists also recalled that the massive use of plastics and the “impossibility of recycling them properly is increasingly an issue of great importance in contemporary society.”
“For this reason, it is essential to look for new materials produced from non-fossil resources, that is, from renewable resources, to reduce the use of plastic,” they defended.
The research has been carried out within the framework of the project “FilCNF: New generation of films composed of cellulose nanofibrils and mineral particles as materials with high mechanical resistance and gas barrier properties”, financed with 190 thousand euros by the Foundation for the Science and Technology. (FCT) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
Source: Observadora
