Bioplastic Made from Waste Shrimp Shells

Insect cuticle is a pretty versatile material. Layers of chitin, a biopolymer, are built up to make strong, lightweight material that composes the exoskeleton and wings of insects. Now, scientists from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have developed an artificial version of insect cuticle called 'Shrilk' that is as strong as aluminum allow but with only half the weight.

The synthetic insect cuticle is made from chitin which is obtained from waste shrimp shells. By varying the level of moisture during the production process, the stiffness of the material can be varied, allowing flexible or very rigid products to be made with the same material.

Since it is biodegradable, Shrilk is also being investigated for a number of medical uses, including use for sutures that need to be particularly strong and as a scaffold for tissue regeneration. It is also being suggested as a low-cost and biodegradable alternative material for things like trash bags and packaging.

image: Public Domain by Siga/Wikimedia Commons

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written by Robert, June 18, 2012

This is awesome, I was worried for a moment that this would be another miracle of science that's super synthetic and requires precious resources and would probably end up being bad for the earth. I'm very glad it isn't!

Where to get the shrimp?
written by Cameron, June 19, 2012

This would be completely awesome if they could collect the shrimp shells from restaurants and other places that are already using the shrimp for food, so more shrimp aren't needed just for shells.

(this might already be the case but I've only read this artivcle)

Duh!
written by anteater, June 19, 2012

Japanese researchers have been exploring chitin for a very long time. This is not new, it is a derivative of the Japanese work.

Of course chitin is superior to man made materials, chitin based polymers have been under continual improvement (via evolution) since the Cambrian explosion.

-2

medical use question.
written by sarah, June 21, 2012

I frequently get upset when reading others nay-saying comments in this section of ecogeek, saying it will never work or never be profitable... and here I go feeling like a bit of a hypocritical because i have a question about the material that assumes its limitations before testing... would stitch material made out of shrimp shells be dangerous to someone allergic?

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