Tuskegee professor training 'next generation' of Black scientists

The plastics industry is missing out on innovations from historically Black colleges and universities that could help spur new plastic pollution and climate change solutions.

HBCUs aren't well known for producing intellectual property, Michael Curry, associate professor at Tuskegee University and affiliate of the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology, told Plastics News.

"One of the things the [plastics] industry does very well is coming to minority institutions to recruit minorities for their business," Curry said. "But they're never really there for the IPs or the innovations being developed there."

With limited news coverage compared to colleges like MIT, money isn't generated to fund projects at HBCUs, he said. "But that's because there hasn't been a road map for HBCUs to get out and in front of the IPs they're developing."

Curry launched his business, Eco-Friendly Plastic Materials LLC, in 2018 to bring the innovations he and his students created at Tuskegee "from the lab to the commercial market, getting them more exposure to industry," he said. The business creates a pathway for researchers to communicate with the plastics industry and form partnerships that lead to company development and funding for HBCUs "to move to that level," Curry said.

Tuskegee touts Dr. George Washington Carver's innovations that revolutionized agriculture, among other industries. Carver's representation as a Black scientist inspired Curry to go into plastic materials research, he said.

Like Carver, Curry's inspiration also comes from materials produced by "Mother Nature," he said, "which produces cellulose … one of the most abundant renewable resources on the planet."

But, Curry said, cellulose in plastic composites aren't on the market yet because the material is known to be "hard to work with."

"Cellulose is one of the polymers that don't play well with … the types of solvents and polymers being used in the industry," he said.

Curry and his team came up with — and recently received a patent for — a method to combine cellulose with petroleum-based materials to create composites that break down faster than traditional plastic materials.

"Our discovery made it play well with the solvents and the polymers, which gives us an advantage to explore the properties that are going to come forth from combining them," he said. "By putting the cellulose inside of current polymers, it gives us an idea of how they break down and if they can be recyclable and renewable.

Instead of taking decades to even start to break down, Curry said, Tuskegee's polymer blends start to break down in 10-15 days.

Tuskegee was also granted a patent for a fully bio-based plastic using the cellulose with other biopolymers like polylactic acid, another plant-based polymer. These plastics will "totally" break down "under certain conditions," Curry said.

"[The materials] could be used in many products," he said. "If you can adjust the specs of the plastic just right with the cellulose, it could be used to make bottles, plastic, containers, silverware, any plastic item you can think of.

"That opens the door for a wide variety of opportunities," Curry said, including the use of cellulose in the development of high-temperature-resistant plastics, which his team is currently working on.

Curry and his team are also developing a way to use cellulose as a gas-capturing medium using low-temperature plasma to modify the surface of the cellulose material.

Cellulose could be used in both of the new applications "to create some kind of mass remediation or capturing system and remove carbon dioxide out of the air," he said. "It would naturally grab carbon dioxide out of the air, store it and later on we could retransport the carbon dioxide into something like water … and recycle it for some other kind of energy use."

Curry hopes the adoption of cellulose in plastic materials and beyond creates an awareness of technology and innovations from HBCUs, he added.

"There's a lot of innovation taking place at HBCUs," Curry said. "It takes a diverse set of minds at the table to solve a problem. … Often we forget having a diverse pool of innovations … makes things really beneficial for communities.

"HBCUs have the ability to offer the industry a different look at their processes, products and day-to-day business," he added. "[They] can offer that fresh look, that new design, that new approach."

"Plastic makes our lives so much better in every facet," Curry said. "From food storage to transportation, we can't get away from it."

By developing products that are either recyclable or biodegradable, researchers can accomplish the task of making lives and communities better, he said. But for Black scientists, the motivation is to impact their own communities, Curry said.

When he was a child, Curry said, he remembers seeing people in his community picking up cans. When he asked his dad why, he explained that the material in the cans has a value and that people can sell the cans for money.

What if, Curry said, communities were educated on the value of plastics?

"You'd have a lot more people wanting to jump in and educate themselves and go into plastic recycling and remediation," he said. "We have to do a better job of educating our communities on, as we find them, the hazards associated certain products and the remedies behind minimizing those hazards."

To come up with remediation plans, community committees need support from the plastics industry to educate them on solutions.

"One of the things we could do from an industry standpoint, is go into those communities and meet with the local officials and develop these projects and events that surround the issue of plastic in your environment and what it's doing to your community," Curry said. "Education on the products we're developing is one of the biggest things."

Curry is working to educate not only his students at Tuskegee, but also elementary-age students so they can "put a face with science that [Black students] can recognize," he said. "Some of the careers become abstract to students of color because they don't see the representation."

Through visits and Zoom meetings with K-12 schools, Curry represents a future by which students of color can be inspired.

"As scientists, we need to be better stewards of the basics. We have to start in the elementary grades. … Not just on the science, but how the science is improving their lives, their communities, the environment and their health," he said. "Showing that more would get a lot of African Americans pursuing science, but also pursuing … meaningful innovation that will benefit our environment and communities."

Curry hopes his efforts to train "the next generation of minority scientists help increase the number of unrepresented minorities in the STEM pipeline who can create these innovations and build communities for the better."