We have found a centrifuge bacteria

We depend on plastic and, at the same time, we have been trying to find a substitute. That serves the same, but does not generate the tons of garbage and the microplastics that are generated today. There are several alternatives underway And now, a group of researchers believe there are found A convincing solution: use bacteria as a kind of living factory that produces the plastic of the future.

And it is really promising: as resistant as metal, but that does not pollute when decomposing.

Urgent alternatives. Seeing that plastic dependence and? Recycling is not something that is done too welltry to limit the use of plastic through different regulations. The big problem of this material is that, when degrading, it does not disappear completely, but is broken into particles known as microplastics.

They end in rivers, seas, In food and In our body (They have been found until In human testicles or in the breast milk). And, in the process, many of these plastics release toxic substances such as phthalates or bisphenol A (BPA), highly harmful and related to hormonal problems and even cancer. Looking for that alternativeresearchers from RICE University and the University of Houston began experimenting to find a substitute for plastic that meet three conditions:

• Non-polluting.
• That is just as strong, or more, than plastic.
• That can be manufactured in a scalable way.

Centrifugating bacteria. With that in mind, the researchers considered bacterial cellulose. It is a substance that produces some bacteria naturally and that is very similar to the cellulose of the plants, but finer. The finding is not this, since the bacterial cellulose was already known, but it has not been developed on a large scale due to its disorganized structure and complexity when using it.

Therefore, the novelty is not the material, but how they have managed to produce it. To get that cellulose, they developed a “rotational bioreactor.” It is a machine in which they introduce these bacteria that produce cellulose while keeping them in a liquid. And what they have forced is to limit their movement so that they do not move at random.

Basically, and as if it were a washing machine, they have put the bacteria there and have turned them in a specific direction during the production of the material. In this way, the fibers that make up the cellulose and that were previously disorganized, are now aligned in an orderly manner. Of course, in him studyresearchers expose that it is something that makes the difference, since, as with other materials (steel or carbon fiber, for example), when the fibers are aligned it is when the final material has those properties that make it unique.

In the upper image, the messy fibers. In the lower one, the fibers created through that “bioreactor”

Properties. Several, and very promising. The team has detailed that the new material is:

• Biodegradable.
• Resistant to replace plastic, but also some metals.
• Flexible and transparent.

What resistance are we talking about? Of a traction resistance of up to 436 MPa, approaching the one presented by materials such as glass or aluminumbut adding to that property that of being flexible and transparent.

It can be given. Masr Saadi is the main author of the study and one of the characteristics that he has outstanding is that they can be added to the material. “The method allows you to easily integrate various additives to nanoscale directly into bacterial cellulose, which allows customizing material properties for specific applications.

For example, adding nitruro nitruro nanolás, the resistance rose to 553 MPA, but the capacity of the material to dissipate heat was also improved, tripling its thermal efficiency with respect to normal samples.

Promising. “We imagine that these bacterial cellulose sheets, resistant, multifunctional and ecological will become omnipresent, replacing plastics in various industries,” says Muhammad Maksud Rahman, another of the researchers involved. And, although this bioplastic is in the laboratory phase, its industrial potential is evident.

This multifunctionality would allow the material not only to containers that are currently plastic, but also to technical textiles due to their resistance and properties, also to heat dissipation devices, to Flexible screenslight structural sensors or elements that can be used in the construction segment.

But, as we say, it is still a product that has demonstrated its potential in the laboratory, but it still remains for it to reach the market. If you end up doing it, of course.

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