Now, a study led by Jeremy Luterbacher's team at EPFL unveils a pioneering approach to producing high-performance plastics from renewable resources. The research, published in Nature Sustainability, introduces a novel method for creating polyamides—a class of plastics known for their strength and durability, the most famous of which are nylons—using a sugar core derived from agricultural waste.

The new method leverages a renewable resource, and also achieves this transformation efficiently and with minimal environmental impact.

"Typical, fossil-based plastics need aromatic groups to give rigidity to their plastics—this gives them performance properties like hardness, strength, and high-temperature resistance," says Luterbacher. "Here, we get similar results but use a sugar structure, which is ubiquitous in nature and generally completely non-toxic, to provide rigidity and performance properties."

Lorenz Manker, the study's lead author, and his colleagues developed a catalyst-free process to convert dimethyl glyoxylate xylose, a stabilized carbohydrate made directly from biomass such as wood or corn cobs, into high-quality polyamides. The process achieves an impressive atom efficiency of 97%, meaning almost all the starting material is used in the final product, which drastically reduces waste.