Effect of plasma oxidation on plastics degradation by the yellow mealworm and their gut microbes

• Jaylen Harrison, Chemical Engineering, University of Delaware

• Ross Klauer, Biomolecular Engineering, University of Delaware
• Darien Nguyen, Chemical Engineering, University of Delaware

Through previous experimentation it has been proven that the yellow mealworm’s gut contains microbes capable of biodegrading plastics at a molecular scale. These plastics are made up of carbon and hydrogen bonds which take significant amounts of energy to break apart. We theorized that by oxidizing the plastic as a pretreatment it may accelerate the rate at which the mealworms degrade the plastic as it takes much less energy to break down the various alcohols and ketones. This pretreatment was accomplished through cold plasma oxidation. In this process the plastic is placed in a container with helium and oxygen. Then an alternating current is sent through to excite the electrons creating cold plasma and providing enough energy to oxidize the surface of these plastics. We then tracked the life cycle of the worms and the consumption of treated and non treated plastics over the course of 30 days. The results showed the worms having a preference of the plastic that was simply treated by the helium and not with oxygen over the oxidized samples and the base control samples. This suggests the possibility of physical degradation happening from the plasma treatment alone being the important factor in the worm degradation over the oxidation.