Creating bioplastic

Question

I want to attempt to create bioplastic from avocado seeds as part of a project for school but I want to make sure I have a solid step by step process to successfully create this plastic material. I've done some research and have a vague concept of making bioplastic but I want to be frugal with my resources. Any tips?

Answer 1

Hi again Alyssa R.,

My guess is that the bioplastic already on the market as Avoplast (https://bioplasticalternatives.com/avoplast/ )

is made from the triterpene portion of the pits, see:

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/tswj/2013/245828/ . Limited amounts of the unsaturated fatty acids could probably be included, they would cross-link (polymerize) as well.

How one would, in a home environment, go about extracting that selectively is a good question. Probably crush and grind the pits, then extract with petroleum ether (or hexane, or butane if you had industrial equipment). Evaporate the solvent off to leave a pure triterpene fraction, then polymerize that with benzoyl peroxide (zit cream, extracted into xylene) perhaps (reference: https://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/doi/pdf/10.1680/jgrma.16.00009 ). Other polymerizers are likely to be too pricy or high-tech for you, I'm thinking.

Good luck, and feel free to comment back to let me know how you're doing on this.

--Cheers, -- Mr . d.