Youth in Research - successful chitosan project

At the regional and later on state level the 14-year-old secondary school student achieved four different prizes for his work on "Preparation of a biodegradable plastic from chitin". He entered the contest in the juniors’ division “Students run experiments” where he gained the first prize in the category “Chemistry” and qualified for the contest “Youth in Research” on state level and even at this age group he was successful and won the second prize. In addition, he has been awarded with the special prizes "Renewable Resources” and "Environment and Conservation" of the Johanna Samel Foundation.

For his experiments Johannes Wüllenweber used chitin and chitosan from Heppe Medical Chitosan. The films were produced by poly-condensation reactions. He optimised the film properties by varying the type, the amount and the concentration of used acids and added both hygroscopic and hydrophobic additives.

Folie mit GlycerinAccording to his results the films with the best mechanical properties were obtained by using acetic acid. Glycerol and urea increased the elasticity.
	In order to check their degradation ability he let the films decompose.  Within two weeks the films were completely composted. To demonstrate the ecological safety of the film he cultivated plants on it. Damages to the plants were not visible; they grew in a healthy way.

 The whole HMC+ team congratulates on his outstanding results. We all wish Johannes a successful and bright future - maybe as scientist developer of new products.

• Further information on other research projects can be found in the HMC+ News area.
• Read more about another "Youth in Research” project.
• Chitosan for your own project.