Jesse Roman

Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Chlore, Amy

Second Advisor

Aguila-Ames, Briana

Area of Concentration

Biochemistry

Abstract

The advent of electronics has been one of the greatest breakthroughs in human history, allowing us to significantly improve our quality of life, long-distance communication, and overall development as a society. Optimization and innovation of such technologies is ever-present today, as we continue to transition from in-person to online services. Despite the ongoing advances, the materials that we use to fabricate these devices are typically of plastic and metallic-origin, which not only persist in the environment, but are also detrimental to its health and that of humans. In fact, due to our increasing dependence on electronics, the industry is rapidly becoming one of the largest producers of waste worldwide. As such, it is imperative to research and develop novel materials from renewable, biological sources that are of comparable, if not, higher performance. The strategy discussed herein utilized a cellulose membrane as a substrate upon which a mixture of corn-derived zein protein, polyaleuritate, and varying weight percentages (15, 30, 40, 60, 80%) of either graphene nanoplatelets (GnPs) or graphene oxide (GO) were added. The insulating properties of GO were reflected by all of the GO biocomposites having a resistance upwards of 40 MΩ, whereas the GnP biocomposites displayed an exponential decay in resistance as a function of wt%. The percolation threshold of the latter was determined to vary between 30-40 wt% GnP, as a ~91% decrease in resistance was observed over this region, with average resistance values leveling out to between 14-30 Ω for wt% ≥ 40%. Both the GnP and GO biocomposites displayed significant DO depletion (biodegradability potential) in bay water; however, these values declined at increased weight percentages likely as a result of toxicity. Likewise, the smaller DO depletion of the GO composites in four out of the five tested weight percentages suggests the increased toxicity of GO compared to GnPs. most notably, in addition to the ~91% decrease in electrical resistance over the percolation threshold region, the GnP biocomposites also experienced their greatest decrease in biodegradation (~15%). This tradeoff between electrical and environmental performance should be further investigated in order to close the gap for such sustainable biocomposites to replace the toxic aluminum and copper-based materials used currently.

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