Agar Ag18 (Solid, without Plasticizer)

^ The bioplastic is the little round thing in the straw

Ingredients:

• Water (50 mL)

• Agar agar powder (3.5 g)

Procedure:

• Mix all the ingredients into a pan or pot

• Heat up all the ingredients to 85-90 C on the stove

• Mix thoroughly

• Lower heat if bubbles are forming on the bottom of the pan

• Take off heat after about 4 minutes of stirring or until the agar is fully dissolved (the solution is at least 85 C and thicker than when started, almost syrupy)

• Cast into a straw

• After about 15 minutes or when the bioplastic is set, carefully take out the bioplastic from the straw

• Chop into pellets or keep as a rod

• Let dry for a few days

• Optional: after it dries and has shrunk, put it into a waffle maker to remelt it, and then (once it has cooled down a bit) mold it with your hands into the desired shape. This shape should not shrink again, as you already let it dry earlier, so there is no more moisture to escape.

• Done!

Properties:

• Before drying: thick liquid

• During drying: thick jello

• After drying: pretty hard

Notes:

• This stuff shrinks a lot! (7.5mm to 3mm in thickness, which is an 84 percent decrease in size)

• This is a pretty good recipe for making hard stuff

Images:

Rev2:

I cast the same recipe into The Tube this time. Unfortunately, since the tube has a larger diameter, the bioplastic also had a larger diameter, meaning that I couldn't push it through my modified extruder, so I couldn't make any filament. Next time, I'll find a smaller tube and use that. This did manage to shrink though, with a whopping 93% decrease in size.

Images: