{"id":23,"date":"2018-11-21T09:54:16","date_gmt":"2018-11-21T09:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/chemfs\/?p=23"},"modified":"2023-03-14T13:57:39","modified_gmt":"2023-03-14T13:57:39","slug":"staff-join-forces-with-discovery-planet-to-offer-a-vision-for-a-future-without-plastic-pollution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/chemfs\/2018\/11\/21\/staff-join-forces-with-discovery-planet-to-offer-a-vision-for-a-future-without-plastic-pollution\/","title":{"rendered":"Staff join forces with Discovery Planet to offer a vision for a future without plastic pollution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr Rob Barker from School of Chemistry and Forensic Sciences, is leading a team researching the potential of cellulose \u2013 a natural polymer \u2013 to create \u201cplastic-like\u201d materials. In a bid to share this exciting research with the public, and get them engaged with how we can create a plastic free future, a team from Division of Natural Sciences (Nats) have been running a series of workshops over the past few weeks \u2013 Plastics Unwrapped \u2013 in partnership with Discovery Planet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In these sessions in Margate, Thanet school children and members of the public have had the chance to learn more about the problems caused by plastic pollution and what can be done about it, including ground-breaking research.<\/p>\n

\"Plastic
Photo credit: Pete Bateson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Plastic
Photo credit: Pete Bateson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Plastic
Photo credit: Pete Bateson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Plastic is increasingly becoming a global issue that impacts each and every one of us, the environment around us and for future generations. The project has already seen\u00a0a\u00a0beach clean in Margate, which found 388 bottle caps, 154 shopping bags, 217 straws, 251 food packets and 600 pieces of unidentifiable plastic in just two days. In all, over 2200 pieces of plastic waste were collected from the beach.<\/p>\n

The project has already seen\u00a0a\u00a0beach clean in Margate, which found 388 bottle caps, 154 shopping bags, 217 straws, 251 food packets and 600 pieces of unidentifiable plastic in just two days. In all, over 2200 pieces of plastic waste were collected from the beach.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Raising awareness and educating young children on the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling is just as important as it is for us to find new ways to provide a solution going forward. The Plastic Unwrapped project gave approximately 600\u00a0children from local schools the chance to take part in four interactive workshops, and question some of our researchers about their work.<\/p>\n

\"Plastic
Photo credit: Pete Bateson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Plastic<\/p>\n

In a bid to battle the plastic pollution blighting our planet, Dr Rob Barker and his research team have been working in the lab to test natural Cellulose fibres through a reaction called acid hydrolysis to form a new type of cellulose in the form of small crystals, called Cellulose Nanocrystals.<\/p>\n

Dr Rob Barker explains the importance of their research, and the impact that this could have on our future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hydrolysis process works by preferentially \u201cattacking\u201d disordered areas in the cellulose polymer whilst leaving stronger more compact (crystalline) regions alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Cellulose Nanocrystals produced are particularly interesting because they are strong and can be formed into layers, this is key as most of the plastics that are currently used are layered materials.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if we can control how the cellulose forms these layers then there is a possibility that \u201cplastic-like\u201d materials could be made from a naturally occurring material.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith these ongoing developments, at the University of Kent and at a number of partner Universities across the World, in the future, we hope that we can start to move towards replacing synthetically made plastics with those produced from a natural, biodegradable waste material.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cIn order to add functionality to the Cellulose Nanocrystals, increasing the number of areas where these could possibly be used to replace synthetically made plastics, we need to play more with the chemistry of the nanocrystals to control how they interact with each other. An interesting property of cellulose is that when it is layered, it has an abundance of \u201cHydroxyl\u201d (or O-H alcohol) groups on its surface.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese groups make cellulose interesting as they are very reactive, which can allow for the cellulose to be manipulated in many different ways, increasing the possible functionality of these materials.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith these ongoing developments, at the University of Kent and at a number of partner Universities across the World, in the future, we hope that we can start to move towards replacing synthetically made plastics with those produced from a natural, biodegradable waste material.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hopefully this is just the start of a bigger engagement and education project. The workshops were deemed a success by students, teachers and members of the public, and the team hopes to run more\u00a0of these in the future.\u00a0We\u2019ll also be keeping an eye on how Dr. Barker\u2019s research and be sharing news of any developments \u2013 so watch this space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Rob Barker from School of Chemistry and Forensic Sciences, is leading a team researching the potential of cellulose \u2013 a natural polymer \u2013 to … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40702,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[98478,99399,1363,130363],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/chemfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/chemfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/chemfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/chemfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40702"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/chemfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/chemfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/chemfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23\/revisions\/24"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/chemfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/chemfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/chemfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}