Scientists Create Self-Cleaning Bioplastic Inspired by Lotus

This picture shows farmer Nguyen Van Khoa harvesting lotus flowers on a pond in Hanoi. (AFP)
This picture shows farmer Nguyen Van Khoa harvesting lotus flowers on a pond in Hanoi. (AFP)
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Scientists Create Self-Cleaning Bioplastic Inspired by Lotus

This picture shows farmer Nguyen Van Khoa harvesting lotus flowers on a pond in Hanoi. (AFP)
This picture shows farmer Nguyen Van Khoa harvesting lotus flowers on a pond in Hanoi. (AFP)

A research team at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) have developed a self-cleaning bioplastic that is eco-friendly and ideal for fresh food and takeaway packaging.

The new plastic is inspired by the nature full of ingeniously designed structures that could inspire researchers striving to develop new high-performance and multifunctional materials, reported the team in their study published March 8 in the journal Science of The Total Environment.

Plastic waste is one of our biggest environmental challenges but the alternative this team developed is both eco-friendly and cost-effective. "We've replicated the phenomenally water-repellent structure of lotus leaves to deliver a unique type of bioplastic that precisely combines both strength and degradability," lead author Mehran Ghasemlou said.

The bioplastic is made from cheap and widely available raw materials -- starch and cellulose -- to keep production costs low and support rapid biodegradability.

The fabrication process does not require complicated equipment and would be simple to upscale to a roll-to-roll production line, Ghasemlou said.

While biodegradable plastics are a growing market, most biodegradable or compostable plastics require industrial processes and high temperatures to break them down.

The new bioplastic does not need industrial intervention to biodegrade, with trials showing it breaks down naturally and quickly in soil. "There are big differences between plant-based materials -- just because something is made from green ingredients doesn't mean it will easily degrade," Ghasemlou said.

"We carefully selected our raw materials for compostability and this is reflected in the results from our soil studies, where we can see our bioplastic rapidly breaks down simply with exposure to the bacteria and bugs in soil. Our ultimate aim is to deliver packaging that could be added to your backyard compost or thrown into a green bin alongside other organic waste, so that food waste can be composted together with the container it came in, to help prevent food contamination of recycling,” he explained.

The researchers inspired their new bioplastic from the always immaculate lotus leaf renowned for having some of the most water-repellent surfaces on earth and are almost impossible to get dirty.

The secret lies in the leaf's surface structure, which is composed of tiny pillars topped with a waxy layer. Any water that lands on the leaf remains a droplet, simply rolling off with the help of gravity or wind. The droplets sweep up dirt as they slide down, keeping the leaf clean.

To make their lotus-inspired material, the RMIT team of science and engineering researchers first synthetically engineered a plastic made of starch and cellulosic nanoparticles. The surface of this bioplastic was imprinted with a pattern that mimics the structure of lotus leaves, then coated with a protective layer of PDMS, a silicon-based organic polymer.

Tests show the bioplastic not only repels liquids and dirt effectively, but also retains its self-cleaning properties after being scratched with abrasives and exposed to heat, acid and ethanol. Corresponding author, Professor Benu Adhikari, said the design overcomes key challenges of starch-based materials.

"Starch is one of the most promising and versatile natural polymers, but it is relatively fragile and highly susceptible to moisture. By mimicking the 'lotus effect', we have delivered a highly effective starch-based biodegradable plastic," Adhikari said.

Ghasemlou is currently working with a bioplastic company, which is evaluating further development of these novel water repellant materials to start the commercial applications of the bioplastic.



D-Day Veterans Return to Normandy to Mark 81st Anniversary of Landings

Military aircraft perform a flyover during a memorial ceremony marking the 81st anniversary of the World War II D-Day Allied landings in Normandy, at the American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, north-western France, on June 6, 2025. (AFP)
Military aircraft perform a flyover during a memorial ceremony marking the 81st anniversary of the World War II D-Day Allied landings in Normandy, at the American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, north-western France, on June 6, 2025. (AFP)
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D-Day Veterans Return to Normandy to Mark 81st Anniversary of Landings

Military aircraft perform a flyover during a memorial ceremony marking the 81st anniversary of the World War II D-Day Allied landings in Normandy, at the American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, north-western France, on June 6, 2025. (AFP)
Military aircraft perform a flyover during a memorial ceremony marking the 81st anniversary of the World War II D-Day Allied landings in Normandy, at the American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, north-western France, on June 6, 2025. (AFP)

Veterans gathered Friday in Normandy to mark the 81st anniversary of the D-Day landings — a pivotal moment of World War II that eventually led to the collapse of Adolf Hitler's regime.

Along the coastline and near the D-Day landing beaches, tens of thousands of onlookers attended the commemorations, which included parachute jumps, flyovers, remembrance ceremonies, parades, and historical reenactments.

Many were there to cheer the ever-dwindling number of surviving veterans in their late 90s and older. All remembered the thousands who died.

Harold Terens, a 101-year-old US veteran who last year married his 96-year-old sweetheart near the D-Day beaches, was back in Normandy.

"Freedom is everything," he said. "I pray for freedom for the whole world. For the war to end in Ukraine, and Russia, and Sudan and Gaza. I think war is disgusting. Absolutely disgusting."

Terens enlisted in 1942 and shipped to Great Britain the following year, attached to a four-pilot P-47 Thunderbolt fighter squadron as their radio repair technician. On D-Day, Terens helped repair planes returning from France so they could rejoin the battle.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth commemorated the anniversary of the D-Day landings, in which American soldiers played a leading role, with veterans at the American Cemetery overlooking the shore in the village of Colleville-sur-Mer.

French Minister for the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu told Hegseth that France knows what it owes to its American allies and the veterans who helped free Europe from the Nazis.

"We don’t forget that our oldest allies were there in this grave moment of our history. I say it with deep respect in front of you, veterans, who incarnate this unique friendship between our two countries," he said.

Hegseth said France and the United States should be prepared to fight if danger arises again, and that "good men are still needed to stand up."

"Today the United States and France again rally together to confront such threats," he said, without mentioning a specific enemy. "Because we strive for peace, we must prepare for war and hopefully deter it."

The June 6, 1944, D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France used the largest-ever armada of ships, troops, planes and vehicles to breach Hitler’s defenses in western Europe. A total of 4,414 Allied troops were killed on D-Day itself.

In the ensuing Battle of Normandy, 73,000 Allied forces were killed and 153,000 wounded. The battle — and especially Allied bombings of French villages and cities — killed around 20,000 French civilians between June and August 1944.

The exact number of German casualties is unknown, but historians estimate between 4,000 and 9,000 men were killed, wounded or missing during the D-Day invasion alone.

Nearly 160,000 Allied troops landed on D-Day.

Of those, 73,000 were from the US and 83,000 from Britain and Canada. Forces from several other countries were also involved, including French troops fighting with Gen. Charles de Gaulle. The Allies faced around 50,000 German forces.

More than 2 million Allied soldiers, sailors, pilots, medics and other people from a dozen countries were involved in the overall Operation Overlord, the battle to wrest western France from Nazi control that started on D-Day.