Make Potato Plastic!

Step 1 Gather Materials

Most of the materials you will need will be in your house or can be bought at most supermarkets and home improvement stores.

Ingredients:
2 White skinned potatoes OR potato starch OR corn starch
water
100% Vegetable Liquid Glycerin
White Vinegar
Food Coloring

Tools / Supplies:
Non stick pan
Spatula or Spoonula
Stove Top or Hot Plate
Knife or guillotine

Optional:
blender
peeler
filter
casting compound

Comments

[shytel]

...isz it okay if im not going to us some glycerin.?

[KFHarald]

This is a great tutorial.. I'm using it for my project - I really hope, that it's working (that I'm able to make it work ;-D )

[MazokuTenshi]

this is cool! We're trying to do this for our project, thanks!

[lam]

Dear Brandon Very interest your site.Thank your so much. When you have the time ,please help me to know : - I like to make a plastic GEAR so what happen if I mix too much acid ( vingenar) and please give me a ratio formula for make plastic gear .Thank you so much for your time.

[Divina Angela]

it's really useful for our investigatory project. thanks for the idea.

[mymy]

what's the use of baking soda, vinegar and glycerin?? answer me please...thnx!

[Brandon121233]

Did you read the last step? What does all this mean? Well to get something that resembles plastic, we need to have LONG STRAIGHT chains of polymers. Since starch has both straight and branched polymers, we need to remove or alter the amylopectin, so we are left with long straight chains. Since going through and picking out all the individual amylopectin molecules with an electron microscope is not an option, we had to alter the starch. We used vinegar (acetic acid) to break down the amylopectin into straight but short molecules of dextrin the baking soda neutralizes the acid

[SHIFT!]

Is it possible to make the plastic without any food coloring, and end up with a plastic that is clear? I am in desperate need of some clear plastic, and unfortunately can not find the plastic for it.

[Brandon121233]

yes, use tapioca starch, its pretty clear