A team of researchers led by the University of Coimbra (UC) has developed a plastic substitute from nanocellulose combined with a fibrous mineral that is fully biodegradable and biocompatible.
In a press release sent to Lusa, the UC said that the new material has several applications, including “food packaging and electronic printing, opening doors to the manufacture of more sustainable plastics.
According to the statement, the new material was developed over the past 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 cost reduction and the improvement of very important mechanical and barrier properties”.
Quoted in the statement, José Gamelas and Luís Alves, respectively, project coordinator and principal investigator of the study, explained that the mechanical properties derive from the fact that films “have to be resistant”. In contrast, the barrier properties are related to the impermeability to gases [of the films], that is, resistance to the environment”.
According to the two researchers from the Centre for Research in Engineering of Chemical Processes and Forest Products (CIEPQPF) of the Faculty of Science and Technology (FCTUC), “the great innovation” of this new plastic substitute is the use of fibrous minerals, “which do not have any health risk, and also the preparation of the 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 through the method using filtration, we can have the same films in a few hours and with better properties,” they assured.
So far, the results obtained in the research “are highly promising, showing that this can be a viable solution for the future. Increasing the scale of production, optimizing processes and exploring the properties of these films for other applications, namely for the restoration of old books, will be the next steps of the project”, revealed José Gamelas and Luís Alves.
“Although the project was designed for food packaging and printed electronics, many other applications can benefit from this solution, such as the conservation/restoration of important documents in paper support that have degradation problems with ageing,” they added.
The two scientists also recalled that the massive use of plastics and the “inability to make proper recycling is increasingly an issue of great importance in contemporary society”.
“Therefore, the search for new materials produced from non-fossil resources, that is, from renewable resources, is fundamental to reducing plastic use,” they argued.
The research was developed under the project “FilCNF: New generation of composite films of cellulose nanofibrils and mineral particles as materials of high mechanical strength and gas barrier properties”, funded by 190 thousand euros by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
