Plastic is notorious for its long-term environmental persistence, and while biomass-based alternatives may alleviate this problem, they don’t necessarily function as well during use. To address this issue, scientists have developed a new type of bioplastic that relies on vanilla bean extract to stay stable over time and self-destruct on-demand when exposed to a specific wavelength of light.
Vanillin, the primary chemical component of vanilla bean extract, is the organic compound at the heart of this discovery. It’s a common flavoring agent but is also found in herbicides, cosmetics, and cleaning goods. The authors of this new study believe it could play a role in environmentally-friendly plastics.
The team produced a vanillin derivative that can absorb light at 300 nm as the basis for unique cross-linked polymers that make up the bioplastic. Importantly, this wavelength of UV light is not found in the spectrum of ordinary sunshine, removing the possibility of unintended deterioration. When exposed to this type of light, the vanillin derivative reaches an excited state, and a chemical reaction occurs, causing the polymer to degrade.
In addition to deteriorating on demand, the bioplastic can be broken down to its building blocks, with scientists able to recover 60% of the monomers, which can then be utilized to create polymers with no quality loss. This indicates that the vanillin-based bioplastic might not only be dissolved by light to eliminate trash but could also be upcycled into high-performance plastic items. The study was published on May 11, 2022, in Angewandte Chemie.
It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time vanillin has been linked to plastics research. Last year, eco-conscious scientists at the University of Edinburgh (UoE) used an engineered form of Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria to transform plastic bottles into the compound.
In recent years, discoveries have demonstrated how plastic-eating bacteria, superworms, honeycomb moth larvae, enzymes, and even edible mushrooms, could help tackle the colossal plastic waste problem. However, the research from UoE is pioneering because, in addition to breaking down single-use plastics, it also turns them into a valuable ingredient.
