Environment

Eggs to help bring bioplastics out of their shell

Eggs to help bring bioplastics out of their shell
Eggshell nanoparticles have helped create a bioplastic more suited to packaging
Eggshell nanoparticles have helped create a bioplastic more suited to packaging
View 2 Images
Eggshell nanoparticles have helped create a bioplastic more suited to packaging
1/2
Eggshell nanoparticles have helped create a bioplastic more suited to packaging
The strong, yet flexible and biodegradable bioplastic created with eggshell nanoparticles
2/2
The strong, yet flexible and biodegradable bioplastic created with eggshell nanoparticles

Confucious say, "the green reed which bends in the wind is stronger than the mighty oak which breaks in a storm." The same concept applies to packaging materials, which must protect their contents from the rough and tumble of transport without breaking. Petroleum-based plastics that can take centuries to break down remain the go-to material for such applications, but researchers have found that adding broken eggshells to a bioplastic mix results in a biodegradable material with the strength and flexibility required for packaging purposes.

Despite cracking easily in the middle, when laid end to end eggshells are remarkably strong. Pound for pound, they are as strong as the stone, brick and concrete arches that support Rome's ancient aqueducts. Scientists at Alabama's Tuskegee University have leveraged this strength to increase the flexibility and strength of bioplastic through the addition of tiny shards of eggshell.

"We're breaking eggshells down into their most minute components and then infusing them into a special blend of bioplastics that we have developed," says Vijaya K. Rangari, Ph.D. "These nano-sized eggshell particles add strength to the material and make them far more flexible than other bioplastics on the market. We believe that these traits – along with its biodegradability in the soil – could make this eggshell bioplastic a very attractive alternative packaging material."

After experimenting with various plastic polymers, the team arrived at a mix of 70 percent polybutyrate adipate terephthalate (PBAT), a petroleum polymer, and 30 percent polylactic acid (PLA), a polymer derived from renewable resources, such as corn starch. Although PBAT is an oil-based plastic polymer, it begins degrading in as little as three months after being placed in soil.

While this mixture offered the desired strength and biodegradability, it was too rigid for the researchers' liking. To rectify this, they created nanoparticles made of eggshells, a material they chose for its porosity, light weight and calcium carbonate composition that means it decays easily.

Creating the nanoparticles involved first washing the the eggshells and grinding them up in polypropylene. The shell fragments were then exposed to ultrasonic waves which broke them down into nanoparticles over 350,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair.

A small fraction of these particles was then added to the 70/30 mix of PBAT and PLA, resulting in a bioplastic the researchers say was 700 percent more flexible than other blends, making it ideal for use in retail packaging, grocery bags and food containers – including egg cartons.

The team will present their research at a meeting of the American Chemical Society, and is also examining the potential for eggshell nanoparticles to improve wound healing, bone regeneration and drug delivery.

Source: American Chemical Society

5 comments
5 comments
Cédric Blanc
"Creating the nanoparticles involved first washing the the eggshells and grinding them up in polypropylene" so not purely biodegradable is it? It's a great idea mind, much like GRFP but using disolvable materials. There's no reason why it should be eggshells, I'm sure there are other appropriate and abundant sources of calcium!
RickPoynter
Cedric is right that polypropylene is not biodegradable, but I'm assuming it was used simply as the medium for grinding the eggshells and was not present in the compound (perhaps other than for traces resulting from the grinding process?). What puzzles me, is that a film with 70%PBAT and 30% PLA is already going to be a fairly flexible material, comparable with LDPE/LLDPE, which represent the overwhelming bulk of such packaging world wide. I struggle to believe that adding a small dosage of nano scale egg shell particles could achieve a 700 x increase in the flexibility of the film. PBAT itself is a very rubbery material, is made entirely from non-renewable petroleum resources and is several times more expensive than PLA. Adding the cost of the additional grinding and compounding processes inevitably renders such a product suited to only tiny niche applications at best. Assuming they tried it, I'd be interested to hear whether they added the nano egg shell to 100% PLA. PLA is a highly rigid material, but if a small quantity of nano scale egg shell fragments could increase its flexibility 700 times, that could be very interesting. There is also however the issue of eliminating any chemically bound water from the calcium carbonate of the eggshell. Any moisture liberated during the high temperature and pressure phase of the compounding process, would weaken the PLA via hydrolysis.
Timelord
Guys, it didn't say polypropylene. Don't selectively quote. It says "polypropylene glycol." There's a big difference. I don't know why it's so important to prove these scientists are lying or wrong about the flexibility. Why not just wait until they actually present their findings before trying to tear them down?
Oun Kwon
Go for it!
noteugene
Now if they could take this material & make packages that are safer & easier to open than clam shell a lot of us older folks would be pleased.