Jellyfish-Based Plastic

The quest for alternative materials replacing fossil-based plastics is of great importance due to their damage to the environment. In this context, protein-based plastic materials may provide an alternative solution to this problem. These can be easily harvested and produced in a biodegradable form and, often produced from renewable resources. In this work, the use of jellyfish (JF)-based biomass to produce plastics is suggested. This biomass comprises a significant amount of proteins such as Q-mucin and collage that can be easily extracted by means of green technology. Also, there is a considerable need to use JF as a renewable resource since, during the last decades, JF has become an ecological disturbance worldwide. Here, a new route to exploit JF biomass to form biodegradable bioplastics is demonstrated. These materials are easy to produce, and their mechanical properties can be tuned by blending the JF biomass with biodegradable cross-linkers that are also generated from renewable resources. Inspection of the plastics morphology reveals that it is composed of an unprecedented pseudospherulitic structure, which affects the materials' mechanical properties.