Matthieu Schon

Pit Schwartz

Production of Bioplastic

Abstract

In order to synthesize bioplastic out of potato starch, we first made some preleminary
experiments to determine the adequate proportion of the ingredients. The production
of plastic requires a polymer (starch), a plasticizer (glycerin), a solvent (water) and an
acid (vinegar). The result of our research is a flexible, dense polymer which can be
used for several applications a in daily life.

What is Bioplastic?

Bioplastic is the universal term for polymers made of renewable biomass sources. As
a consquence, bioplastic is biodegradable in about 180 days in oppostion to
traditionnal plastics, which remain in the environment for 500 to 1000 years.
Bioplastics are made of different sources of biomass, such as corn or potato starch
and cellulose. These substances are naturally produced by plants.

Potato starch

We used potato starch for our research because we reflected about a sustainable use
of potato peel, which is often degraded to waste and potato starch is easily accessible
in every grocery.

Plants store starch in special organelles called amyloplasts which are present in the
cells in form of granules to save the energy produced by photosynthesis. The glucose
produced by photosynthesis forms bonds to grow to a macromolecule following the
equation:

n C6H12O6 => (C6H10O5)n + (n-1) H2O

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There are two products which can form: amylopectine and amylose.
For amylopectine „n“ in the above equation can vary between 2 000 and 200 000,
which means that the amylopectine chains are formed by between 2 000 and 200 000
glucose units, which form branchings every 24 to 30 glucose units.
For amylose, „n“ varies between 300 and 3000 and there are no branchings in the
chain ,in contrary to amylopectine, and, as a consequence, amylose is less soluble in
water than amylopectine because its molecules do not link to water molecules via
hydrogen bonds.
In the image below, the structures of amylose and amylopectine are respresented.
The branchings of amylopectine are visible.

The potato starch we used contains 70 % amylopectine and 30% amylose.

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Glycerin (Propan-1,2,3 triol)

Glycerin is a hygroscopic liquid with a high viscosity. It has 3 hydroxyl groups which
make it be soluble in water.

The above image shows the structure of glycerin.

Glycerin makes the biolastic more flexible.

Water

Water plays an important role in the production of bioplastic. First, it acts as a solvent
to dissolve the starch. Secondly, it helps the starch molecules to stay disrupted after
heating.

Acid (Vinegar)

Vinegar, a 6% in volume solution of acetic acid liberates acetate ions and hydrogen
ions in solution.
This is important, because ions react with the starch polymers and make them be
disordered more easily in the solution. This disorder, resulting from the disruption by
the water and the ionization by the acetic acid, makes the resulting cast film more
homogenous.

Determination of the best water/starch ratio

We did some tests to find out in which proportion we have to mix water to starch in
order to receive a plastic which conforms to our criteria. The plastic has to be
flexible, but not too soft.

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The mixture in a beaker glass

Solution number Mass of Water in % Mass of Satrch in %

1 83 17
2 57 43
3 60 40

Plastics produced with solution 2 seemed to fit the best to our conditions, so we
continued with this proportion for further research.

Determination of the temperature of gelation

We heated our starch solution to determine the

temperature of gelation.

After 3 tests, we can conclude that the gelation process

begins at a temperature of 60 degrees centigrade.

Determination of the amound of acetic acid

We made 3 tests to find out which amount of vinegar was necessary to make the
plastic homogenous.

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Homogeneity experiment number Amount of acetic acid in % of total mass
1 6
2 9
3 7.6

The 7.6 % of acetic acid containing mixture gives the plastic with the best
homogeneity. The 9 % plastic smells of the acid, which means that there was acid in
abundance.

Determination of the amount of glycerin

Again, we made 3 tests to determine the amount of glycerine necessary to make the
plastic flexible.

Flexibility experiment number Amount of glycerin in % of total mass

1 16
2 10
3 5.7

Our conclusion of this experiment was, that plastics with less glycerin content made
our plastic stiffer but not more breakable.

General Conclusion

All in all, we can say that our produced plastic satisfied our expectations. Now, we
are looking for a practical application of this material. Further, we are going to
analyze the biodegradability.

Sources:

http://www.mhhe.com
http://green-plastics.net
http://www.thenakedscientists.com
blog.trilighthealth.com
“Le parfum de la Fraise, mystérieuses molécules”, Peter Atkins, DUNOD