Projekt

Recycling of current packaging solutions and materials is often impeded by difficult or even impossible separation into their original components. In nature, however, solutions for efficient and sustainable coatings and packaging are omnipresent: Plant seed coats (testa or fruit walls) are biodegradable, pack and protect embryos - even under extreme conditions such as heat, frost, radiation, chemical and microbial attack and for short as well as long time periods (up to hundreds of years). However, surprisingly little is known about these natural packaging and protection solutions. The team will monitor environmental conditions of plants with seeds with thin testa growing under extreme alpine conditions as well as those of their close relatives in low-land regions to assess environmental effects on seed coat properties and functionalities. To expand the properties range, seeds of fire-prone regions and the Arctic and Antarctic will be included. Finally, the team will transfer the knowledge into sustainable, plant-based packaging and coating prototypes.

• Dr. Michaela Eder

  Max-Planck-Institut für Kolloid- und
  Grenzflächenforschung
  Abteilung für Biomaterialien
  Potsdam
  

• Prof. Dr. John William Chapman Dunlop

  Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg
  Natur- und Lebenswissenschaftliche Fakultät
  Fachbereich Chemie und Physik der Materialien
  MorphoPhysics Group
  Salzburg
  Österreich