Researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China have invented new high-performance sustainable materials that are expected to replace plastics

Various plastic products in daily use facilitate everyone's life, but the white pollution caused by plastic has always been a problem.
Now researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China have invented a new high-performance sustainable material that is expected to replace plastic
.
Plastic products are mainly derived from petrochemicals.
For many years, scientists have been hoping to find alternative materials, especially non-polluting bio-based sustainable structural materials.
However, the mechanical properties of this material are poor or the manufacturing process is too cumbersome.
Due to the production cost and scale cannot be compared with plastics, it is not feasible to replace plastics
.
According to the news from the University of Science and Technology of China, the team of Academician Yu Shuhong applied the bionic structural design concept to the development of high-performance bio-based structural materials, and developed a new material manufacturing method called "directed deformation assembly", which achieved a high-speed Large-scale production of performance-sustainable materials
.
Through this directional deformation assembly method, the team successfully combined cellulose nanofibers (CNF) and titanium dioxide-coated mica flakes (TiO2-Mica) to prepare a high-performance sustainable structural material with a bionic structure
.
The obtained structural material has better mechanical and thermal properties than petroleum-based plastics, and is expected to become a substitute for petroleum-based plastics
.
The process is suitable for magnification, and the product has good workability and rich and changeable colors and luster, so that it can be used as a more beautiful and durable structural material to replace plastics
.
The material has a structural design imitating mother-of-pearl, and this bionic design effectively improves the mechanical properties of the material
.
The brick-mud structure of mother-of-pearl makes it possible to construct high-performance materials based on ordinary natural substances, and has the excellent characteristics of high strength and high toughness
.
Not only that, the thermal and mechanical properties of this material are also excellent.
This all-natural bionic structural material is safer and more reliable than plastics, so that it can replace plastics at high or variable temperatures.
Sustainable, lightweight, high-performance plastic alternatives
.
Related research results have recently been published in the journal Nature Communications
.