From sticky mess to plant-based chair

Gadi Rothenberg and Albert Alberts in the lab - 'Such a thing doesn't exist,' UvA researchers Gadi Rothenberg and Albert Alberts repeatedly heard when they accidentally discovered 100% bioplastic in 2010. Now ten years later, in collaboration with furniture manufacturer VepaDrentea, they have created a chair made entirely from plant-based materials. It all started ten years ago when chemist Gadi Rothenberg, professor of Heterogeneous Catalysis and Sustainable Chemistry at the Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences at the UvA, was looking for a biofuel for aircraft together with his colleague Albert Alberts. The experiment failed again and again. Rothenberg: 'The polymer always turned out to be soluble in warm water.' The original experiment may have failed, but Rothenberg and Alberts immediately knew they had something special in their hands: a new polymer made from 100% bioplastic. 'What we were left with was a viscous mass; I also call it 'sticky mess'. This new bioplastic was 100% plant-based and biodegradable and it dissolved in water.