{"id":28281,"date":"2015-09-09T03:18:51","date_gmt":"2015-09-09T01:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=28281"},"modified":"2015-09-08T10:47:44","modified_gmt":"2015-09-08T08:47:44","slug":"water-heals-a-bioplastic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/water-heals-a-bioplastic\/","title":{"rendered":"Water heals a bioplastic"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"thermo-plastic\"
thermo-plastic “What’s unique about this plastic is the ability to stick itself back together with a drop of water,” said Melik Demirel. Image: Demirel Lab\/Penn State<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – A drop of water self-heals a multiphase polymer derived from the genetic code of squid ring teeth, which may someday extend the life of medical implants, fiber-optic cables and other hard to repair in place objects, according to an international team of researchers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“What’s unique about this plastic is the ability to stick itself back together with a drop of water,” said Melik Demirel<\/a>, professor of engineering science and mechanics<\/a>, Penn State. “There are other materials that are self healing, but not with water.”<\/p>\n

Demirel and his team looked at the ring teeth of squid collected around the world — in the Mediterranean, Atlantic, near Hawaii, Argentina and the Sea of Japan — and found that proteins with self-healing properties are ubiquitous. However, as they note in a recent issue of Scientific Reports, “the yield of this proteinaceous material from natural sources is low (about 1 gram of squid ring teeth protein from 5 kilograms of squid) and the composition of native material varies between squid species.”<\/p>\n

So as not to deplete squid populations, and to have a uniform material, the researchers used biotechnology to create the proteins in bacteria. The polymer can then either be molded using heat or cast by solvent evaporation.<\/p>\n

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