The fall meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), held virtually and in person August 13–17, 2023, features more than 10,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics. Read on to discover some of the exciting research presented at the meeting—and check back as we continue coverage throughout the week!
The insect world has been a fascinating source of inspiration for many innovations in the chemistry world. From collision detectors modeled after locusts' flight patterns to micro- and nanofibers created based on silkworms' spinning techniques, these tiny creatures continue to serve as muses for cutting-edge discoveries.
Now, researchers have taken things beyond replicating insects' motions or behaviors in novel applications—Professor Karen Wooley, Ph.D., and her team at Texas A&M University have developed a method for completely transforming black soldier flies into biodegradable plastics after their lives end.
“For 20 years, my group has been developing methods to transform natural products—such as glucose obtained from sugar cane or trees—into degradable, digestible polymers that don’t persist in the environment,” says Wooley. “But those natural products are harvested from resources that are also used for food, fuel, construction and transportation.”
Enter the black soldier fly, whose nutrient-rich larvae are bred for both animal feed and waste reduction (they are quite popular for composting). After they grow into adults and complete their short lifespans, their carcasses are typically discarded, but Wooley's team saw potential in this overlooked waste matter.
Chitin, the second most abundant polysaccharide found in nature, is a key component of these flies (and also crab shells). After isolating the chitin and grinding it into a more pure powder form, the researchers then converted it into chitosan, which can then can be functionalized and crosslinked to create functional bioplastics.
Related Article
Don’t Be Shellfish! Using Biomass for Batteries
A new study looks into transforming the crab shells into hard carbon, which could be used as a feasible anode for sodium-ion batteries.
The team have already developed a superabsorbent, biodegradable hydrogel that can hold 47 times its weight in water, which could one day serve as a useful tool for retaining floodwater in agricultural settings and releasing it during periods of drought.
The researchers presented these findings at ACS Fall 2023, and their next steps involve further exploring the fly chitin's potential. They are currently working on breaking the chitin down into its monomeric glucosamines and using those sugars to develop bioplastics that typically come from petrochemicals, such as polycarbonates or polyurethanes.
Prof. Wooley is enthusiastic about the potential for this process to create a closed-loop system for the black soldier fly. “Ultimately, we'd like the insects to eat the waste plastic as their food source, and then we would harvest them again and collect their components to make new plastics,” she says. “So the insects would not only be the source, but they would also then consume the discarded plastics.”
Watch Prof. Wooley and Cassidy Tibbetts, a graduate student working on the project, discuss their research in greater detail:
Explore More Research from Prof. Wooley and Her Team:
Structural Metamorphoses of d-Xylose Oxetane- and Carbonyl Sulfide-Based Polymers In Situ during Ring-Opening Copolymerizations
David K. Tran, Ashley N. Braaksma, Autumn M. Andras, Senthil K. Boopathi, Donald J. Darensbourg*, and Karen L. Wooley*
Elucidation of Substantial Differences in Ring-Opening Polymerization Outcomes from Subtle Variation of Glucose Carbonate-Based Monomer Substitution Patterns and Substituent Types
Yidan Shen, Mingwan Leng, Yunchong Yang, Senthil Kumar Boopathi, Guorong Sun, and Karen L. Wooley*
Elucidation of Substantial Differences in Ring-Opening Polymerization Outcomes from Subtle Variation of Glucose Carbonate-Based Monomer Substitution Patterns and Substituent Types
Yidan Shen, Mingwan Leng, Yunchong Yang, Senthil Kumar Boopathi, Guorong Sun, and Karen L. Wooley*
Enhanced Dielectric Strength and Capacitive Energy Density of Cyclic Polystyrene Films
Maninderjeet Singh, Mei Dong, Wenjie Wu, Roushanak Nejat, David K. Tran, Nihar Pradhan, Dharmaraj Raghavan, Jack F. Douglas, Karen L. Wooley, and Alamgir Karim*
Topological Design of Highly Anisotropic Aligned Hole Transporting Molecular Bottlebrushes for Solution-Processed OLEDs
Nari Kang, Sangho Cho, Eric E. Leonhardt, Chun Liu, Stanislav V. Verkhoturov, William Henry Hunter Woodward, Michael J. Eller, Tianyu Yuan, Thomas C. Fitzgibbons, Yannick P. Borguet, Ashlee A. Jahnke, Anatoliy N. Sokolov, Travis McIntire, Carl Reinhardt, Lei Fang, Emile A. Schweikert, Liam Patrick Spencer, Guorong Sun*, Guohua Xie*, Peter Trefonas*, and Karen L. Wooley*
Complexities of Regioselective Ring-Opening vs Transcarbonylation-Driven Structural Metamorphosis during Organocatalytic Polymerizations of Five-Membered Cyclic Carbonate Glucose Monomers
Yidan Shen, Xin Yang, Yue Song, David K. Tran, Hai Wang, Jaye Wilson, Mei Dong, Mariela Vazquez, Guorong Sun, and Karen L. Wooley*
Morphologic Design of Silver-Bearing Sugar-Based Polymer Nanoparticles for Uroepithelial Cell Binding and Antimicrobial Delivery
Yue Song, Mahmoud Elsabahy, Christina A. Collins, Sarosh Khan, Richen Li, Teri N. Hreha, Yidan Shen, Yen-Nan Lin, Rachel A. Letteri, Lu Su, Mei Dong, Fuwu Zhang, David A. Hunstad*, and Karen L. Wooley*