Research­ers have developed a bioplastic that pro­tects against UV radiation

The research­ers developed a bio­mass-based copoly­mer whose bis­fur­an struc­ture was found to effect­ively pre­vent UV radi­ation from passing through a film made from the mater­i­al. The trans­par­ency of the bioplastic is still good. In addi­tion, the air­tight­ness of the mater­i­al is 3 – 4 times that of stand­ard PET plastic. The study from Oulu shows that it is pos­sible to devel­op bioplastics that have bet­ter prop­er­ties than the fossil-based plastics that are cur­rently pro­duced. For example, the new envir­on­ment­ally friendly bioplastic is suit­able for pro­tect­ing products from dir­ect sun­light. High-tech applic­a­tions such as chassis mater­i­als for prin­ted elec­tron­ics also require advanced mater­i­al pro­tec­tion fea­tures. The biopoly­mer developed in Oulu is entirely bio­mass based. The raw mater­i­als used in pro­duc­tion are hydroxy­methyl­fur­fur­al (HMF) and fur­fur­al, which are biore­finery products derived from cel­lu­lose and hemi­cel­lu­lose. By chem­ic­ally link­ing these the research­ers were able to cre­ate copoly­mer parts with both bis­fur­an and fur­an-like struc­tures. A pat­ent applic­a­tion has been filed for this meth­od. The research res­ults have been pub­lished in the industry’s lead­ing inter­na­tion­al pub­lic­a­tions, ACS’s Mac­ro­molec­ules and Bio­mac­ro­molec­ules. Source: Uni­ver­sity of Oulu, News, 19.02.2020