Page 49 - Plastics News February 2023

TECHNOLOGY

Seasoning for bioplastics makes chemical sense DSM announces development
of AI with ability to add
colour to materials

SM Engineering Materials
Dhas announced the launch
of Lucidiris. Lucidiris aims to help
customers reduce time to market
when developing colours of mate-
rials for a variety of applications.
Besides predicting colour and me-
chanical properties, DSM claims

dding seasoning to food often lution, traditional petroleum-based the technology can predict the
Avastly improves the result. And products slow down degradation and envelope of potential colour space
now, a team of researchers from can be off-putting for consumers who within critical mechanical proper-
Korea and the Nordic countries has prefer natural, biologically sourced in- ties and prescribe recipes for tar-
shown that what goes for dinner, ap- gredients. geted colour properties. Lucidiris
parently also goes for biobased, bio- The scientists theorised that what has been developed for several
degradable plastics. material grades and will be extend-
works for food might well also work ed, including recycled-based and
A study published in the ACS journal for biodegradable plastics. They ex- repurposed materials.
Sustainable Chemistry & Engineer- perimented with the use of season-
ing under the title Toward Sustaining ings such as citric acid and cream of According to the company, this pat-
Bioplastics: Add a Pinch of Seasoning tartar - the latter being a well-known ent protected Artificial Intelligence
reports that adding seasoning to the solution for creating thick, stable egg (AI) technology facilitates the de-
recipe for biobased, biodegradable whites and whipped cream, for exam- velopment of material recipes with
plastics can boost the strength of the ple. targeted optical properties while
polymer to a measurable degree. assuring mechanical properties.
Jeyoung Park, Dongyeop Oh, Hyeo-
Biodegradable polymers, by their very nyeol Jeon, Jun Mo Koo and their col- DSM claims that with Lucidiris,
nature, tend to lack strength, as they leagues then seasoned a biodegrad- customers will be supported by
are built to disintegrate. As the re- able bioplastic called poly(butylene its ability to:
searchers pointed out, the more easily succinate) (PBS) with fruit-derived • Predict colour and mechanical
these materials break down, the flim- tartaric acid or citric acid to discover properties of polymer com-
sier they are, tearing apart from the whether adding either of these could pounds upon addition of col-
slightest pressure. “The thermome- improve the plastic’s mechanical our ingredients.
chanical performance requirements properties. • Predict envelope of potential
of consumer products are required Their findings bore out their theory. colour space that can be pro-
to match the nondegradable plastics; As they wrote: “The developed “sea- duced within critical mechani-
consequently, the development of soning” brings the properties of PBS,
commercially available biodegradable one of the most underwhelming bio- cal properties.
products has reached its current non- degradable and biorenewable poly- • Prescribe colour ingredients
evolving state,” they wrote. mers, to a new level.” to add to a polymer com-

While additives could provide a so- pound to meet targeted prop-
erties.

PLASTICS NEWS 51
February 2023