Week 7: Transforming Molding and Casting with Bioplastics

19 t/m 25 maart

Before you start: the supplies you need for these tests are a pot, a spoon or fork, a stove, a scale, a measuring cup & the ingredients named in the recipes for the experiments.

Assignment Dive into the world of biobased plastic and speculate about future applications using the Material Driven Design Method. The assignment of this week is to make your own bioplastics and use the Material Driven Design (MDD)-method to come up with future applications.

What: Make your own bioplastics and use the MDD-method to come up with future applications.

Make your own bioplastics. Try various recipes, add other materials, play with textures and use your mold. Document your process and findings.
Material properties sheet: Describe the properties of your material
Experiential toolkit: Understand the experience of your material
Future applications: Develop a concept for future applications

7.1 What are bioplastics?

Bioplastics are plastic materials produced from renewable biomass sources, such as vegetable fats and oils, corn starch, straw, woodchips, sawdust, recycled food waste, etc. Bioplastic can be made from agricultural by-products and also from used plastic bottles and other containers using microorganisms. Common plastics, such as fossil-fuel plastics (also called petrobased polymers) are derived from petroleum or natural gas. Not all bioplastics are biodegradable nor biodegrade more readily than commodity fossil-fuel derived plastics. Bioplastics are usually derived from sugar derivatives, including starch, cellulose, and lactic acid. As of 2014, bioplastics represented approximately 0.2% of the global polymer market (300 million tons).

7.2 Cooking bioplastics: agar agar test 01- to make a color

The bioplastics are based on Margaret Dunne's 'Agar Agar plant based bioplastic' recipe from her Bioplastic cook book for flexible bioplastics:

Following the recipe, you need to mix glycerine, water and agar. I used 5.4 gram glycerine, 80 ml water and 3.2 gram agar to get twice the amount for an almost fully flexible material. The ingredients were boiled for around 5 minutes until the substance looked and felt more brittle and it was then mixed with different ingredients.

The agar agar bioplastic has turned into a flexible bioplastic. There is very little force needed to break this material. It can be broken by bending of using a sharp object.The surface of the material is very smooth. Without the added ingredients the bioplastic is fully transparent.

The bioplastic was divided into five petri dishes. Each bowl had a different ingredient that was added to the bioplastic. For each bioplastic there was 3 grams of added ingredient. In the photo above you can see that the bioplastics are mixed with different ingredients. All the bioplastics have turned color into the color of the added ingredient. The texture of the material is something to be improved.

The first of the batch was mixed with paprika powder. The bioplastic had turned into a brown/orange color. The texture of the bioplastic became slightly more rough because of the bigger pieces of powder.

The second bioplastic was mixed with cappuccino cacao powder. This is a more fine powder which made it mix better with the bioplastic.The color of the cacao looks a lot more pure than the paprika powder. The structure of the bioplastic has remained unchanged.

The third bioplastic was mixed with coriander leaf (the coriander leaf was first made into a finer powder). The coriander has turned the bioplastic into a green color. The texture remains unchanged.

The fourth bioplastic was mixed with pepper (the pepper was first made into a more powdery substane). The smell of the pepper is still strongly smellable after the mix with the bioplastic. The color of the bioplastic has not fully merged with the color of the pepper. The texture of the bioplastic has become a lot more rough. The pepper was not entirely as fine as a powder as the other powders were, which is likely the reason behind the differences in properties.

The fifth bioplastic was mixed with turmeric. Turmeric is known for it's vivid yellow color. The color of this bioplastic turned out as the most bright color. It's completely lost the transparent ability of the bioplastic. The texture of the material has remained completely smooth. The bioplastic smells strongly like the turmeric.

7.3 Cooking bioplastics: Gelatine test 02 - to make a pattern

The bioplastics are based on Margaret Dunne's 'Gelatine animal based bioplastic' recipe from her Bioplastic cook book for flexible bioplastics:

Following the recipe, you need to mix glycerine, water and gelatine. I used 3.6 gram glycerine, 60 ml water and 12 gram gelatine to get the amount for an almost fully flexible material. The ingredients were boiled for around 5 minutes until the substance looked and felt more brittle and it was then mixed with different objects to get a pattern.

Gelatine bioplastic mixed with dried flowers.

The denim sticks to the bioplastic making it hard to get the material to not break. The pattern of the denim is slightly visible.

The gelatine bioplastic with bubbles is the only gelatine bioplastic that has no other objects mixed to create a pattern. The bubbles are created with a (plastic) straw. The bubbles harden but are still fragile.