Bio-inspired seashell design turns recycled plastics into consistent, strong materials
The breakthrough, led by aerospace engineering assistant professor Christos Athanasiou, could slash the cost of virgin packaging materials by nearly 50 percent and keep more waste out of landfills.
The work addresses inconsistency, one of recycling's biggest problems.
Less than 10 percent of the 350 million tons of plastic produced each year is effectively recycled, and when it is, the resulting material often can't be trusted for high-performance applications.
Nature's blueprint for strength
In typical mechanical recycling, plastics are melted together into an unpredictable mix.
This randomness creates weaker, less reliable material, unsuitable for critical uses like car components or construction parts.
Seashells, however, thrive on imperfection. Their structure, called nacre, is made of brittle mineral 'bricks' bonded with soft protein 'mortar.'
This architecture dissipates energy and prevents catastrophic failure, creating robustness without purity. Athanasiou's team borrowed this natural strategy for their synthetic composite design.
From pallet wrap to performance
The team used recycled high-density polyethylene (HDPE), the clear stretch film that wraps pallet loads, and cut it into sheets. These 'bricks' were layered with a softer adhesive polymer 'mortar' to mimic nacre's architecture.
When tested on a custom mechanical setup, the bio-inspired material maintained the original performance of virgin plastic while reducing variability in a key performance measure — maximum elongation — by more than 68%.
The researchers also developed an 'uncertainty-aware' Tension Shear Chain model to quantify not just strength, but the reliability of performance.
HDPE stretch film usually can't be reused for its original purpose after recycling because exposure to sunlight, heat, and stress changes its molecular structure. Athanasiou likens it to 'reusing a parachute without checking for rips.'
The seashell-inspired approach, however, restores the material's trustworthiness, opening the door to high-performance reuse.
Although the study focuses on plastics, the aerospace connection is clear. Space systems require materials that stay reliable in extreme environments.
The same principles could one day help NASA's Lunar Recycling Challenge, where waste materials might be repurposed into survival infrastructure.
Next, the team plans to expand the approach to other plastics, pair it with greener adhesives, and explore its potential for off-Earth construction, proving that what nature perfected in the ocean could help solve waste problems on Earth and beyond.
Although the study focuses on plastics, the aerospace connection is clear. 'Whether it's a reusable rocket part or a shelter on Mars, we need materials that are resilient across their entire lifecycle,' Athanasiou said.
'Our study tackles a fundamental mechanics problem: how do you build reliable structures from unreliable materials?'
The team is now scaling the approach to other recycled plastics and experimenting with bio-based adhesives for greater sustainability. 'Nature doesn't purify — it organizes,' Athanasiou added.
'We're taking that philosophy and applying it to a problem that affects both Earth and the future of space exploration.'
The findings of the study have been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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