{"id":120395,"date":"2023-01-04T07:33:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-04T06:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=120395"},"modified":"2022-12-27T14:14:13","modified_gmt":"2022-12-27T13:14:13","slug":"usask-developed-bio-glitter-green-alternative-to-persistent-plastics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/usask-developed-bio-glitter-green-alternative-to-persistent-plastics\/","title":{"rendered":"USask-developed bio-glitter \u2018green\u2019 alternative to persistent plastics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Now, a University of Saskatchewan (USask) research team has developed an innovative glitter product that is biodegradable and uses light-reflecting shapes to create sparkles unlike any other \u2013 with the potential to mitigate plastic pollution around the world.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A product that is used in everything from party favours to cosmetics to boat paint, glitter products are often made of tiny plastic particles referred to as microplastics. Glitter is produced in the form of flakes, and its small size and ability to disperse into the environment in which it is released makes cleanup and control of the product difficult, if not impossible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn modern glitter production, aluminum and polyethylene terephthalate (microplastics) are usually combined to produce the final product,\u201d said Amin Babaeighazvini<\/strong>, a PhD student in USask\u2019s College of Engineering, and a lead member of the research team that developed the product.\u00a0<\/p>

\u201cAlthough I have developed a number of biodegradable films over the past eight years, we have recently developed biodegradable and edible glitters from natural resources that do not include microplastics.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Microplastics have been found to have\u00a0significant effects on ecosystems<\/a>\u00a0when they enter waterways or other natural resources through human action, and have even been\u00a0found in remote locations,<\/a>\u00a0far from human activity. As well as being non-biodegradable and environmentally toxic, many glitter and sparkle products contain toxic pigments that provide their colour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These factors have led to arguments that plastic glitter should be banned from production and use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To reduce the environmental threats of producing and using glitter, Babaeighazvini and his research supervisor Dr. Bishnu Acharya (PhD), an associate professor of engineering, have created a plant-based  product called ChiralGlitter, that is inspired by the natural process of producing structural colours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe glitter particles are a variety of unique shapes and sizes that allow them to reflect\u00a0light at different angles, causing the surface to sparkle or shimmer,\u201d said Babaeighazvini.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This means the colours in the glitter come from light reflecting off its surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost of the colours that we see in nature are either from pigments or structural colours,\u201d said Acharya. \u201cStructural colour is based on how the light falls on the structure. The light reflects in a certain way, and that gives the colour. We mimic these phenomena in creating ChiralGlitter.\u201d\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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