Unravelling The Governing Factors for Polysaccharide and Biopolyester Processing

The production, consumption, and disposal of polymers for textile and packaging applications pose several problems for the environment, including carbon emissions and the persistence of microscale and nanoscale debris in the ocean. In recent years, biopolyesters (e.g. Polybutylene adipate terephthalate or polybutylene succinate) have emerged as environmentally friendly alternatives to petroleum-derived polymers, due to their biodegradability, easy thermal processing and tailorable mechanical and barrier properties. Other biopolymer alternatives, such as polysaccharides (e.g. chitosan and cellulose ethers), are naturally abundant and have the potential to self-assemble in cholesteric liquid crystals with a tailored photonic bandgap, opening new opportunities for the development of functional optical materials. However, the widespread adoption of all these biopolymeric alternatives remains limited due to challenges in their large-scale synthesis and manufacturing. In this talk, we will discuss scalable processing of these polymers through fast and open-air reaction schemes, and their integration in the development of packaging and textiles with advanced functionality. We will discuss how chemical factors such as molecular weight and repeat-unit chemistry affect chain mobility and solution-based and thermal processing of biopolyesters and polysaccharides. We will also discuss how interchain interaction can be leveraged to result in long-range order such as liquid crystal self-assembly, therefore enabling new advanced functionality such as colorimetric sensing and circular dichroism. These relationships are expected to assist in the large-scale deployment of biopolymer-based functional materials with tailored structure and properties.