Booth Id:
CHEM062T
Category:
Chemistry
Year:
2023
Finalist Names:
Hooda, Anika (School: Brookings High School)
Nepal, Sampada (School: Brookings High School)
Abstract:
Plastics pose a major environmental problem to the planet as they take around 700 years to degrade completely. Consequently, the demand for alternate and environment-friendly materials is rising. Cellulose extract from bio-waste is one for combating plastic perils, and spent coffee grounds (SCGs) stand out as a promising, sustainable, and inexpensive bio-waste material. SCGs are the residue of the ground coffee obtained after the beverage preparation, with an estimated annual production of 8 million tons considered waste and discarded. Our project assesses the viability of extracting cellulose from SCGs to develop biodegradable and plastic-replacing films.
Methods: Films were made by adding varying amounts of SCGs extract to microcrystalline cellulose Avicel, solubilizing in zinc chloride, and crosslinking with calcium chloride.
Results: The Avicel films are transparent. However, with increasing the SCGs extract, their darkness increases, and light transmittance decreases but with enhanced blocking of UV radiation. The films with a tensile strength above 10 MPa are stronger than the commercial low-density polyethylene films but biodegrade within 15 days at 24% soil moisture content.
Conclusion: The extracted fraction from the spent coffee grounds yields biodegradable films crucial for designing and developing non-plastic packaging materials.