TY - JOUR
T1 - Water-processable, biodegradable and coatable aquaplastic from engineered biofilms
AU - Duraj-Thatte, Anna M.
AU - Manjula-Basavanna, Avinash
AU - Courchesne, Noémie Manuelle Dorval
AU - Cannici, Giorgia I.
AU - Sánchez-Ferrer, Antoni
AU - Frank, Benjamin P.
AU - van’t Hag, Leonie
AU - Cotts, Sarah K.
AU - Fairbrother, D. Howard
AU - Mezzenga, Raffaele
AU - Joshi, Neel S.
N1 - Funding Information:
Work was performed in part at the Center for Nanoscale Systems at Harvard. Work in the N.S.J. laboratory is supported by the National Institutes of Health (1R01DK110770, N.S.J.), the National Science Foundation (DMR 2004875, N.S.J.) and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. Parts of the schematics were adapted from BioRender.com.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature America, Inc. part of Springer Nature.
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/3/18
Y1 - 2021/3/18
N2 - Petrochemical-based plastics have not only contaminated all parts of the globe, but are also causing potentially irreversible damage to our ecosystem because of their non-biodegradability. As bioplastics are limited in number, there is an urgent need to design and develop more biodegradable alternatives to mitigate the plastic menace. In this regard, we report aquaplastic, a new class of microbial biofilm-based biodegradable bioplastic that is water-processable, robust, templatable and coatable. Here, Escherichia coli was genetically engineered to produce protein-based hydrogels, which are cast and dried under ambient conditions to produce aquaplastic, which can withstand strong acid/base and organic solvents. In addition, aquaplastic can be healed and welded to form three-dimensional architectures using water. The combination of straightforward microbial fabrication, water processability and biodegradability makes aquaplastic a unique material worthy of further exploration for packaging and coating applications. [Figure not available: see fulltext.].
AB - Petrochemical-based plastics have not only contaminated all parts of the globe, but are also causing potentially irreversible damage to our ecosystem because of their non-biodegradability. As bioplastics are limited in number, there is an urgent need to design and develop more biodegradable alternatives to mitigate the plastic menace. In this regard, we report aquaplastic, a new class of microbial biofilm-based biodegradable bioplastic that is water-processable, robust, templatable and coatable. Here, Escherichia coli was genetically engineered to produce protein-based hydrogels, which are cast and dried under ambient conditions to produce aquaplastic, which can withstand strong acid/base and organic solvents. In addition, aquaplastic can be healed and welded to form three-dimensional architectures using water. The combination of straightforward microbial fabrication, water processability and biodegradability makes aquaplastic a unique material worthy of further exploration for packaging and coating applications. [Figure not available: see fulltext.].
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102715322&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41589-021-00773-y
DO - 10.1038/s41589-021-00773-y
M3 - Article
C2 - 33737758
AN - SCOPUS:85102715322
SN - 1552-4450
VL - 17
SP - 732
EP - 738
JO - Nature Chemical Biology
JF - Nature Chemical Biology
ER -