KTH develops new, biodegradable wood-based plastics

Plastics used in home furnishings and building materials could be replaced by a new type of biodegradable wood-based plastic with partly structural strength. Unlike the vast majority of commonly used thermoplastics, this material can be broken down without harming the environment. It was developed by scientists from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm – one of Europe’s leading technical and engineering universities.

One of the goals of developing renewable wood composites is to create materials that are strong enough to replace fossil fuel-based materials. They also need to be sustainable or generated in the circular economy cycle. “Biodegradability enables circularity,” says Peter Olsén, a scientist at KTH, “by degrading the plastic, the fibers can be recycled and the chemical components from the plastic can be reused.”

High fiber content is key to increasing the strength of materials such as fiberglass, but it is difficult to provide a biodegradable wood composite without extensive heat damage in melt-mixing processes. Olsén and his colleagues at KTH announced that they had found a way to provide both a high fiber content and the ability to break down.

“Nobody has ever been able to produce a biodegradable plastic with such a high fiber content, good dispersion and low fiber damage,” says Olsén, “and this allowed for a dramatic improvement in material properties compared to previous attempts.” To achieve higher fiber content, scientists combined polymer chemistry with process technology similar to that used for carbon fiber composites.

Source: www.kth.se
Photo: www.pixabay.com