Skip to main content

Make Sustainable Fabrics from Seaweed

Make Sustainable Fabrics from Seaweed
Contributors
Science Buddies
Non-profit organization offering free STEM resources for hands-on learning | Science Buddies
Various fabrics made from seaweed with two hands putting a card in a wallet. Title: Make Sustainable Biofabrics from Seaweed
Summary
Can you imagine clothing, handbags, or shoes made from seaweed or spider silk? To become more sustainable, the textile industry is looking for ways to develop more eco-friendly fabrics. Biofabrics derived from living organisms such as seaweed or bacteria have been proposed as a potential alternative to conventional fibers. In this science project, you will make several biofabrics from alginate (seaweed) and conduct tests to find out which one is most suitable as a textile replacement.

This project idea was developed and written by Svenja Lohner, PhD, Science Buddies. Procedure for making the alginate-based biofabrics adapted from Fabricademy under CC By-NC 4.0. Valuable input was provided by Anastasia Pistofidou, Fabricademy co-founder.

Lohner, Svenja. "Make Sustainable Fabrics from Seaweed." Science Buddies, 22 June 2023, https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/GreenChem_p006/green-chemistry/alginate-seaweed-biofabrics.
Keywords
STEM
Chemistry Education
Green Chemistry
Science Project
Hands-on Learning
Fabrics
Textile
Biofabrics
Biopolymers
Alginate
Seaweed
Mechanical Properties
Tensile Strength
Torsional Properties
Flexural Properties
Biotextile

Share This

Moderation state
Published
Object Type
Laboratory experiment
Activities/Technology (e.g., in-class activities, online games, hands-on activities/manipulatives, outreach, virtual tools, etc.)
Audience
Middle School
High School (Secondary School)
Published on
Green Chemistry Principles
Waste Prevention
Designing Safer Chemicals
Design for Energy Efficiency
U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Responsible Consumption and Production
Learning Goals/Student Objectives
Make several biofabrics from alginate (seaweed) and investigate how the properties of the fabrics change depending on the ingredients.
Common pedagogies covered
Hands-on learning
Time required (if applicable)
Short (2 - 5 days)

Submitted by

Science Buddies
Safety Precautions, Hazards, and Risk Assessment
N/A
Teacher Recommendations or Piloting Data (if available)
N/A
Link to external
Science Buddies: Make Sustainable Fabrics from Seaweed
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.