Researchers at the University of Bayreuth have developed an environmentally friendly coating that could completely replace millions of plastic packaging materials used worldwide .

The 1357 Collaborative Research Center for Microplastics (SFB) combines the expertise of the University of Bayreuth to analyze the mechanisms and processes of biological effects, transport and formation of microplastics.

Prof. Dr. Josef Breu, Chair of Inorganic Chemistry I, is a member of SFB and together with Prof. Seema Agarwal (Polymer Chemistry II), leads the project " Degradation of biodegradable polymers and their clay nanocomposites under environmentally relevant conditions ".

The project aims to provide material solutions to the problem of microplastics arising from important market segments such as food packaging , which when disposed of with food waste end up in industrial composting plants and are discarded indiscriminately by people around the world and enter the natural environment in large quantities.

Maximilian Röhrl is now a doctoral student of Prof. Josef Breu and has spent the past few years working on the development of environmentally friendly coatings based on synthetic layered silicates as part of his doctoral thesis. Among other things, he also studied the diaphragm.

These are the layers between the packaging and the product, thus protecting the food from contamination, dust or moisture. The barrier film developed by Röhrl is comparable to plastic film , but is more environmentally friendly because it is compostable.