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Step 2Optional: Extract the Starch!
Now that you have a potato, you might be wondering just how we will be making plastic out of this? The answer: extract the starch. How will we do this? BLENDER! Since potatoes are about 95% starch (besides the water), making a potato into a powdered starch form, is relatively easy.
A note to younger viewers: be sure to ask your parents if it is alright to use a peeler, knife and blender, and always use caution when working with exposed blades.
1) Get a potato, and wash it.
2) Use a peeler to take all the skin off.
3) Cut the naked potato up into cubes your blender can handle.
4) Add about 1 cup of water and the cubes to the blender, and turn it on high for a minute or two.
5) Use a coffee filter to strain off the cloudy water.
6) If you plan on making the plastic right away, drying the mixture is not completely necessary, but if you plan on storing it for a while, spread it out on wax paper in a sunny area for it to dry (it could get moldy otherwise).
Heres a suggestion by legionlabs to purify the starch extracted from the potato, by removing unwanted cellulose:
"Given only potatoes, you might be able to increase the purity of the starch for your process by removing cellulose using this reagent, which can be made from commonly available materials:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraaminecopper_hydroxide
You can reuse the reagent by precipitating the cellulose out by acidifying the mixture, filtering out the cellulose, and making the reagent basic again."
If you do not wish to make the starch from scratch, you can order pre-made higher quality starch online, or buy it at your local grocery store. Corn starch and tapioca starch also work well to make plastic with. On to step 3...
A note to younger viewers: be sure to ask your parents if it is alright to use a peeler, knife and blender, and always use caution when working with exposed blades.
1) Get a potato, and wash it.
2) Use a peeler to take all the skin off.
3) Cut the naked potato up into cubes your blender can handle.
4) Add about 1 cup of water and the cubes to the blender, and turn it on high for a minute or two.
5) Use a coffee filter to strain off the cloudy water.
6) If you plan on making the plastic right away, drying the mixture is not completely necessary, but if you plan on storing it for a while, spread it out on wax paper in a sunny area for it to dry (it could get moldy otherwise).
Heres a suggestion by legionlabs to purify the starch extracted from the potato, by removing unwanted cellulose:
"Given only potatoes, you might be able to increase the purity of the starch for your process by removing cellulose using this reagent, which can be made from commonly available materials:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraaminecopper_hydroxide
You can reuse the reagent by precipitating the cellulose out by acidifying the mixture, filtering out the cellulose, and making the reagent basic again."
If you do not wish to make the starch from scratch, you can order pre-made higher quality starch online, or buy it at your local grocery store. Corn starch and tapioca starch also work well to make plastic with. On to step 3...
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Oct 6, 2011. 3:20 AMasolé
says:
Could you explain in more detail the process to purify starch?
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Mar 22, 2009. 5:20 PM
Rotten194
says:
Rotten194
says:
"Kill it first with the biggest knife you have so it wont bite you" I lol'd.
Reply
Oct 11, 2008. 7:15 PMmontytan2000
says:
AMMM.. CAN I USE BABANA STARCH INSTEAD OF POTATO STARCH???
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