Creation of Bio-Based Polymers from Plants

Thomas  H. Epps III, an associate professor at the University of Delaware in the Material Science and Engineering department, is working towards the creation of bio-based polymers from plants, as discussed in an article from Sciencedaily.com. His goal is to create alternatives to petroleum-based polystyrene and he has demonstrated the design of such alternatives and has shown that they could be made from several different types of wood, including pine, cedar, spruce, and cypress. One of the major issues with creating these alternatives is that they have to show that they have similar cost and chemical properties as compared to what is already on the market. In the paper industry one of the many issues is the large quantity of byproduct that is produced as waste. Removal of these waste substances is then costly to deal with, and the paper industry itself is looking for an alternative method to dispose of them to save money. In this case, Epps looks to eliminate the need for disposal of these byproducts and instead use them for the polymers. In the way of their properties, these bio-polymers can match up with the polystyrene on the market, for example the temperatures they can withstand match polystyrene on both the high and low end of the spectrum. These same polymers that were created are also useful in viscoelastic materials, which are materials that combine properties of viscous fluids and elastic solids. Materials such as this allow for the substance to have some "give" to it while at the same time maintaining its shape. In previous trials to create such substances only a few distinct monomers were used and this raised separation costs at the end. To cut these costs the teams instead builds multi-component polymers from various bio-molecules, and this also allows them to create molecules with specific properties.