Material Science Branch: Bioplastics Science And Methods Used

Bioplastics
Name
Institution
Bioplastics
Introduction
Material science is a fundamental branch of science because it intuits individual towards reaching or coming up with eco-friendly materials that are used in the day-to-day activities. Some of these materials are bioplastics. By ‘bio’, according to Ashter (2016) we imply that those are biodegradable in that, they can be fed on by the soil microorganisms and in the end decay (pp. 207). Bioplastics should not be confused with eco-plastics because what the latter entails is plastics that are friendly to the environment. By this, we mean plastics that can sit in the landfills for centuries. They are not any more biodegradable than the non-recycled kind, though they have the environmental aspect of maintaining the non-biodegradable stuff out the landfills to start with.
The choice of bioplastics as a topic is very intriguing. Everyone encounters plastics in their lives almost daily. Some of us after finishing up with a plastic material, we either dump them in our dirt collection or college dirt collection. From thereafter, we never know or think what impact that a single plastic will have to our environment directly or indirectly in years to come. The landfills that these plastic are deposited in will not contain these plastics for all the centuries that we can think of. They don't biodegrade up hence they pollute the soil, killing the microorganism depriving the soil of its fertility and capability. When we think of recycling them, then the amount of carbon dioxide released into the air is unimaginable.
Science and Methods used
Bioplastics are plastics made through the conversion of sugar present in plant materials into plastic (Malinconico, 2017, pp. 155). In some states, such sugar is obtained from corn while in others, wheat, sugarcane, potatoes or sugar beets provide this sugar (pp.157). This is what makes these bioplastics better for the environment and renewable than the conventional plastics. There are two kinds of bioplastics produced in large quantities recently. Malinconico (2017, argues that there is the polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) and the Polylactide acid (PLA) (pp. 160). Usually, during the manufacturing process, corn kernels are milled, and then a chemical substance by the name dextrose is extracted then fermented by yeast or big vats bacteria (pp. 170). The resulting component is a lactic acid as shown below, it repeats itself severally to make up the PLA.
PLA, Just like all polymers are composed of monomers. A monomer of PLA has two oxygen atoms bonded to a single methyl group (Pilla, 2011, pp. 19). This methyl group has three hydrogen atoms bonded to a carbon atom, and both are stable and very familiar in many organic compounds. This methyl group and oxygen atoms are what is obtained from vegetables of fermented corn.
PLA is biodegradable, yes, but it is not easily biodegraded. We do not yet know the actual time span is for the landfill conditions. This stuff after being dumped is expected to break down. Usually, there is definitive evidence on whether really this break down happens just eventually or quickly. As for degrading that happens in bins, some researchers argue it may take the range of three months to a year (Pilla, 2011...