Sarah Ghobish, an Egyptian chemist with a pharmaceutical background. Graduated pharmacy school in 2018 from Misr International University in Egypt, after which, was immediately appointed as a teaching assistant in the chemistry department. Sarah was teaching courses like Organic chemistry, Medicinal chemistry and Drug design until she received her master’s degree in chemistry in June 2023 and got promoted to assistant lecturer. On her master’s program, Sarah worked on synthesizing new potential anti-cancer agents. She realised her passion for this career and decided to pursue a PhD at JCU where she will be working closely with AIMS on synthesising new sustainable polymers with the aim of protecting and enhancing the marine ecosystem.

Synthesis and Characterisation of Sustainable Plasticisers.

2024 to 2027

Project Description

Marine plastic pollution is a major global problem that needs to be addressed urgently. Next to reducing the amount of plastics that reaches our oceans, we need to minimize the impact of plastics that will still reach the marine environment to generate Reef Resilience. Commercial plastics contain plasticisers to provide flexibility and improved flexibility to meet the demands of the end product's application. Plasticisers can leach from their polymeric matrix that persists in the environment. Critically, the development of new sustainable and/or biodegradable plasticisers with limited leaching is needed to improve reef resilience.

Reports have shown that the effects of plasticiser leaching can be controlled by (a) increasing the molecular weight of the plasticisers, (b) polymer surface modification via crosslinking, (c) incorporating the plasticiser on the polymer backbone (internal plasticisation) or (d) the development of non-toxic biodegradable plasticisers. To improve the sustainability (financial and environmental) of plasticisers, they need to be cheap, ideally derived from (agricultural) waste products, non-toxic for humans and animals, biodegradable by bacteria in the marine environment, perform at the same level as traditional plasticisers. Based on these design principles, a pathway towards additive modification will be established. It is intended that these plasticisers would be sourced from plant-based renewable materials such as soybean oil, palm oil, and corn oil that have a lower environmental impact compared to traditional plasticisers which will in turn help with marine life evolution and health in the near future.

Project Importance

The sustainable plasticisers proposed in this study will help realise plastics that have (a) limited leaching of plasticisers, (b) non-toxic to the environment and life, (c) promote bacterial degradation if improperly disposed. This project has the potential to generate new intellectual property for the industrial development of sustainable plastics that are less harmful to the environment. Importantly, there will be unique synergy generated by a aligning the expertise from the University of Tasmania (Organic Chemistry), James Cook University (Chemical Engineering) and AIMS (ecological assessment) to tackle an ever-growing Grand Challenge to improve the reef resilience.

Project Methods

This project will require the preparation of plasticisers and will be evaluated in terms of their
plasticisation, leaching profile.
1. Preparation: tools required for synthesis. Glove box, vacuum lines, etc. Structural
characterization NMR, LCMS or HRMS, FT-IR, UV-Vis, Elemental Analysis
2. Plastisticisation: Differential Scanning Calorimeter glass transition temperature
3. Leaching Properties: Spectroscopic and Chromatographic techniques

Project Results

Plasticisers sourced from sustainable sources will be investigated for their plasticisation effectiveness and leaching. By understanding the plasticiser leaching behaviour, a systems ecology approach can be applied to better understand reef adaptation and their evolution. It is therefore intended that sustainable plasticisers will be developed to serve as a non-toxic alternative to toxic plasticiser leaching plastics.

Keywords

Algae,
Artificial reef,
Coastal development,
Commercial use,
Controlled Environment,
Coral reefs,
Corals,
Disease,
Interaction,
Marine planning,
Pollution,
Qualitative techniques,
Quantitative marine science