Beyond Plastic: Oleogel as gel-state biodegradable thermoplastics

The crisis of plastic waste highlights the urgent need for sustainable alternatives. Bioplastics are seen as a potential solution; however, challenges persist as many are still derived from petroleum, lack biodegradability, or fall short in essential properties such as mechanical strength, chemical stability, and ease of processing. This study pioneers the use of ethyl cellulose-based oleogels as bioderived and biodegradable thermoplastics. These groundbreaking bioplastics, obtained from renewable sources and waste oils, represent an environmentally friendly and high-performance alternative to traditional plastics. The bioplastic named OleoPlast is processed at temperatures ranging from 130 to 165 °C, utilizing different biobased oils and adjusting the oil-to-polymer ratio from 10:3.5 to 1:2. This process yields a high level of versatility, offering broad opportunities for customized applications in both research and industry. Remarkable stability under harsh environmental conditions and biocompatibility pave the way for the adoption of such bioplastics in biocomposite structures, food packaging, green electronics, and tissue engineering. Scalability is ensured by compatibility with both large-scale and high-resolution manufacturing processes, including injection and compression molding, computer numeric control (CNC) milling, and 3D fusion deposition modeling. Overall, this work lays the foundation for a new class of gel-state bioplastics, favoring the transition from traditional thermoplastics to sustainable options with vast perspectives of further exploration and customization in both laboratory and industrial environments.