May 1, 2026 05:41 PM
https://www.acs.org/pressroom/presspacs/...mmand.html
EXCERPTS: Zhuojun Dai, a corresponding author on the paper, explains that “the realization that traditional plastics persist for centuries, while many applications, like packaging, are short-lived, led us to ask: Could we build degradation directly into the material’s life cycle?”
Many microbes can break long polymeric chains into smaller pieces using enzymes. Because plastics are polymers, these enzymes or the microbes that make them could be incorporated into living plastics.
“By embedding these microbes, plastics could effectively ‘come alive’ and self-destruct on command, turning durability from a problem into a programmable feature,” explains Dai.
While previous attempts relied primarily on a single enzyme, Dai, Jin Geng, Dianpeng Qi and colleagues wanted to improve the destruction efficiency. So, they engineered Bacillus subtilis to produce two cooperative, polymer-degrading enzymes. One enzyme acts as a random chopper, snipping the long polymer chains into smaller pieces, while the other slowly chews these pieces into their monomer building units from each end.
[...] The cooperation between the enzymes was so efficient, it even prevented microplastic particles from being created during the degradation process. As a proof-of-concept, the researchers created a wearable plastic electrode out of their living plastic and found it performed as expected, degrading completely within two weeks... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: Zhuojun Dai, a corresponding author on the paper, explains that “the realization that traditional plastics persist for centuries, while many applications, like packaging, are short-lived, led us to ask: Could we build degradation directly into the material’s life cycle?”
Many microbes can break long polymeric chains into smaller pieces using enzymes. Because plastics are polymers, these enzymes or the microbes that make them could be incorporated into living plastics.
“By embedding these microbes, plastics could effectively ‘come alive’ and self-destruct on command, turning durability from a problem into a programmable feature,” explains Dai.
While previous attempts relied primarily on a single enzyme, Dai, Jin Geng, Dianpeng Qi and colleagues wanted to improve the destruction efficiency. So, they engineered Bacillus subtilis to produce two cooperative, polymer-degrading enzymes. One enzyme acts as a random chopper, snipping the long polymer chains into smaller pieces, while the other slowly chews these pieces into their monomer building units from each end.
[...] The cooperation between the enzymes was so efficient, it even prevented microplastic particles from being created during the degradation process. As a proof-of-concept, the researchers created a wearable plastic electrode out of their living plastic and found it performed as expected, degrading completely within two weeks... (MORE - missing details)