dominique4
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How to make organic, epoxy-like material?
Hi,
I'm an artist and work on an installation piece. Regarding to the concept of the exhibition, I use only plant based materials. I would like to make a
transparent, epoxy-like stuff, which I can pour into a cast and becomes solid when dries out.
It also has to be somewhat durable. Could you recommend any materials?
Thank you for your help in advance!
Dominique
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Ozone
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Well, styrene would polymerize (with an added initiator) in a mold to give a hard, clear item. It was originally isolated from storax, a plant resin:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styrax_balsam
Extracting the needed quantity would be a messy trial, so perhaps rolling back a bit, look at some plant resin exudates known to cast amber and the
like. Perhaps the curing of some of these could be accelerated by using an appropriate initiating compound?
O3
-Anyone who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
--Albert Einstein
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Sulaiman
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agar-agar in water sets clear
but is nowhere near as strong as epoxy resin.
a concentrated solution will be almost solid on setting.
Molten sugar is another possibility?
[Edited on 29-7-2015 by Sulaiman]
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Ozone
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Sugars don't really melt. They lose water and decompose (via polymerization of intermediate HMF, etc. to yield caramel, then carbon).
O3
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--Albert Einstein
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aga
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agar-agar is your best bet, as Sulaiman said.
It does not set solid like rubber, or a rock : more like jelly.
It is however easy to get and is an extract from seaweed (i.e. from a natural source).
'Natural' is Highly subjective.
We (humans) are a natural product of this planet, therefore what we make is also natural.
However, i digress ...
To solidify it more, and confrm to your criteria, stuff the mould full of stringy organic material like coconut fibre, dried seaweed, hemp fibres,
willow fibres or whatever you find that is stringy, then pour in your hot agar-agar.
Experiment with trying to dry then powder your organic stringy stuff and add it as a powder when making the agar solution.
Might make the result more 'solid'.
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crazyboy
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How much do you need, and can you be more specific about the specifications? (How critical is transparency, strength, cost?)
I don't think you'll have much luck finding anything clear, and as strong as epoxy derived from plants. Early plastics were poor for a reason. Here
are some possibles.
Carnauba wax, rosin or other natural resins, shellac, or sugar.
Shellac is insect derived, carnauba wax won't be transparent, resins may or may not be transparent. I think sugars are your best bet, they can be
easily extracted from sugar cane or sugar beets and people make very intricate sugar sculptures regularly.
If you want something more exotic/interesting I think a resin such as rosin would be better. High grade rosin is transparent and should be castable.
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Bert
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How to make an organic, epoxy composite like material?
Plant a tree!
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Morkva
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Organic, eh. Organic chemistry! Ha, ha.
Sugar can, indeed, be cast, they use it for prop windows in movies where it is impractical to injure someone jumping through real glass. Also,
candymakers are familiar. There are various sugars you could cast and 'sugar alcohols' like sorbitol, erythritol etc: probably a combination can be
looked up which has a preferable melting point.
If only you could carry out transformations chemical on plant based material, using only non-mineral/non-air based chemicals... lets see here. You
might polymerize some alkene substances. The quickest search for "polymerization of pinene" gives some results. Apparently it can be done.
Green Polymerization Methods: Renewable Starting Materials, Catalysis and ...
edited by Robert T. Mathers, Michael A. R.
https://books.google.com/books?id=KwBwC9QaTXAC&pg=SA5-PA...
A Study of the Polymerization of α- and β-Pinene with Friedel—Crafts Type Catalysts
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja01159a044
These are the chief constituents of turpentine, of which, the smell I love. I wonder if there's a plant based catalyst/initiator. Acetic acid? There
are other unsaturated compunds in plants like in the essential oils of tarragon, cinnamon, and garlic or onion (why would diallyl disulfide fail to
polymerize?) but much too expensive.
One of the first resins used and for waterproofing raincoats - if I'm not too mistaken, was derived from glycerol and phthalic acid, a kind of
polyester. Substituting citric acid for that should make some kind of polymer, but which would require lots of heating to boil the water away.
From corn cobs and some others, one obtains by distillation with hydrochloric acid "furfural" which does polymerize. That's an idea.
Cellulose is the... characteristic? quintessential? plant matreial. Cellulose can be dissolved and percipitated to a hard mass, most easily and
historically with copper hydroxide (it is easy to rust copper for that) and ammonia - "schweitzer's reagent", but there are the cellusolves, and other
types of solvents you might find interesting to use in your other works, being an artist. Or to ruin people's clothes.
Then there's linseed oil, which you, as an artist are already aware of. Still, it is delicious with honey on toast.
[Edited on 30-7-2015 by Morkva]
http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/falcarinol.html
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aga
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Looks like dominique4 got bored after the word 'polymer' was mentioned, and has probably vowed to remain true to roots and make everything from
elephant dung as an artistic Statement.
Good on 'em, and best of luck with the installation.
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pneumatician
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Quote: Originally posted by dominique4  | Hi,
I'm an artist and work on an installation piece. Regarding to the concept of the exhibition, I use only plant based materials. I would like to make a
transparent, epoxy-like stuff, which I can pour into a cast and becomes solid when dries out.
It also has to be somewhat durable. Could you recommend any materials?
Thank you for your help in advance!
Dominique |
wow! I are in the teorize to go at work with a substance nobody say! AMBER!!! 
so if you want 1, 2, 3 liters of amber in liquid from light yellow to crystall clear, you can put someting "inside"... the end process of course is
amber hardened again. So if you have a pocket full of banknotes contact me!
now I have a process for only to soft amber, so I think you can put someting inside, is like working with soft clay, after some minutes the amber is
hard-natural again, but this proces involve no purification so the amber have the color-impurities as before.
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Ozone
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Not exactly, "look at some plant resin exudates known to cast amber and the like."
Anyhow, what about nitrocellulose?
Citric acid:glycerol does indeed polymerize, but it is highly cross-linked (conversion <0.25%) and requires a slow cure to solidify--and the
increasing viscosity during the cure creates steam bubbles that can limit the thickness a cast item.
Furfural does polymerize (acid and heat)--but, it yields an opaque brown/black solid.
O3
-Anyone who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
--Albert Einstein
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kecskesajt
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Sorbitol is another option.Or other sugar alcohols.But only if you dont care of water absorbation.If you have some clear lacquer,melt and mold it and
then dip it in there.
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Ozone
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Mannitol isn't hygroscopic like sorbitol.
-Anyone who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
--Albert Einstein
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