Silk offers an alternative to some microplastics
news.mit.edu
news.mit.edu
> Some of these microplastics are intentionally added to a variety of products, including agricultural chemicals, paints, cosmetics, and detergents - amounting to an estimated 50,000 tons a year in the European Union alone [...] The EU has already declared that these added, nonbiodegradable microplastics must be eliminated by 2025, so the search is on for suitable replacements, which do not currently exist
> Intentionally added microplastics represent approximately 10-15 percent of the total amount in the environment
> Silk is recognized as safe for food or medical use, as it is nontoxic and degrades naturally in the body
> The secret to making the material compatible with existing equipment... is in the tunability of the silk material[: b]y precisely adjusting the polymer chain arrangements of silk materials and addition of a surfactant, it is possible to fine-tune the properties of the resulting coatings once they dry out and harden. The material can be hydrophobic... or... hydrophilic... or anywhere in between, and for a given application it can be made to match the characteristics of the material it is being used to replace
Original research article: Microencapsulation of High-Content Actives Using Biodegradable Silk Materials - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/smll.202201...
"Unlike the high-quality silk threads used for fine fabrics, the silk protein used in the new alternative material is widely available and less expensive, Liu says. While silkworm cocoons must be painstakingly unwound to produce the fine threads needed for fabric, for this use, non-textile-quality cocoons can be used, and the silk fibers can simply be dissolved using a scalable water-based process."