Structural biopolymers are materials engineered by Nature as building blocks of living matter. These materials have unique and compelling properties that allow for their assembly and degradation with minimal energy requirements as well as their performance at the biotic/abiotic interface. By combining basic material principles with advanced fabrication techniques, it is possible to define new strategies to drive the assembly of structural biopolymers in advanced materials with unconventional forms and functions such as edible coating for perishable food, inkjet prints of silk fibroin that change in color in the presence of bacteria, three dimensional monoliths that can be heated by exposure to infrared light and flexible keratin-made photonic crystals.
An increasing body of evidence demonstrates that there is a direct correlation between global warming and the release of heavy metals into drinking and crop water supplies, and water security remains a pressing sustainability challenge in developing nations. We present a pathway to obtain ultra-stable nanofibers assembled from small molecules in water which rival the mechanical properties of nature's stiffest materials. We then decorate the surface of these nanofibers with efficient heavy metal chelators and demonstrate orders of magnitude improvement over macroscopic alternatives in use today, offering a way to miniaturize water treatment while overcoming several complications of existing strategies.
Fonterra is a global dairy nutrition co-operative owned by 10,000 farmers and their families. As part of its strategy Fonterra puts sustainability at the heart of everything it does. Fonterra is working with MIT and Professor Ian Hunter, to look at new ways it can fundamentally transform its sustainability foot print from grass (on farm robots) to glass ( sustainable packaging). This work includes the goal of reducing and repurposing cow methane from a pollutant to an energy source while simultaneously leveraging other interlinked breakthroughs. Carl MacInnes, the Director Sales & Marketing Disruption will outline some of the ideas and approaches that are being considered.
Desiree Plata
Eva Ponce Executive Director, MITx MicroMasters in Supply Chain Management Director, Omnichannel Distribution Strategies
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