{"id":211151,"date":"2025-04-11T01:27:06","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T06:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/transparent-paper-based-material-can-hold-boiling-water-and-degrade-in-deep-ocean-in-under-a-year"},"modified":"2025-04-11T01:27:06","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T06:27:06","slug":"transparent-paper-based-material-can-hold-boiling-water-and-degrade-in-deep-ocean-in-under-a-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/transparent-paper-based-material-can-hold-boiling-water-and-degrade-in-deep-ocean-in-under-a-year","title":{"rendered":"Transparent paper-based material can hold boiling water and degrade in deep ocean in under a year"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

A team of biomaterial engineers, environmental resource specialists and industrial design researchers affiliated with a host of institutions across Japan has developed a biodegradable material that is clear and can hold boiling water\u2014and it degrades in less than a year after settling on the ocean floor. Their work is published<\/a> in the journal Science Advances.<\/p>\n

Prior research has shown that millions of tons of plastics are piling up in the environment, including on the ocean floor<\/a>. Because of this, scientists have been looking for better, biodegradable replacements. In this new effort, the research team has developed a paper-based, clear, biodegradable material<\/a> that can stand up to liquids for several hours, even those that have been heated, allowing them to replace plastic cups, straws, and other everyday objects.<\/p>\n

The research team made the material by starting with a standard cellulose hydrogel. After drying, the material was treated with an aqueous lithium bromide solution which forced the cellulose to solidify into desired shapes. The researchers note that end-products could be as thin as plastic cup walls, or as thick as desired. They describe the material as tPB, a transparent 3D material made solely of cellulose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A team of biomaterial engineers, environmental resource specialists and industrial design researchers affiliated with a host of institutions across Japan has developed a biodegradable material that is clear and can hold boiling water\u2014and it degrades in less than a year after settling on the ocean floor. Their work is published in the journal Science Advances. [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1635,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-materials","category-sustainability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211151\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}