washer, dishwasher, bathtub and 

 shower and discharged from wastewa- 

 ter treatment plants to collect in the 

 water column and sediments of rivers 

 and estuaries. 



Polyaspartic's potential use as a 

 detergent additive 

 gained the attention of 

 Procter and Gamble, a 

 leading detergent 

 manufacturer. 

 Wanting to know 

 more about this 

 protein analogue, the 

 detergent giant 

 provided some 

 additional funding for 

 Wheeler's research. 



Neither Procter 

 and Gamble nor any 

 other major company 

 has added polyaspartic 

 acid to its detergent 

 formulas yet. 



"It's a few years 

 from being generally 

 accepted in a prod- 

 uct," Wheeler says. "It 

 takes research, market 

 analysis and test- 

 marketing before a 

 large detergent 

 manufacturer changes 

 its detergent formula. 

 They have to know 

 consumers will be 

 happy with the 

 product they put on 

 the shelf." 



Wheeler thinks 

 that public pressure 

 to improve environ- 

 mental quality and 

 product biodegradabil- 

 ity will help spur 

 polyaspartic's use as a 

 detergent additive. But it is likely "a 

 smaller, less conservative detergent 

 company wanting to develop and 

 market 'green' detergents will lead the 

 way," he says. 



Already, polyaspartic acid has 

 commercial possibilities that could 

 make it worth millions. Wheeler could 



have rested on his laurels, retired to 

 his laboratory and let industry do the 

 rest. 



But that's not Wheeler's way. 

 The Duke University graduate 

 again took his research cue from the 



Herman Lankford 



Polyaspartic acid could make diapers more biodegradable 



oyster. Wheeler found that some 

 protein polymers in the shell are cross- 

 linked — linked to one another to 

 make longer polymers. He and his 

 graduate student Andy Mount showed 

 that these polymers could absorb 

 several times their weight in water. In 

 the oyster, these cross-linked proteins 



keep the shell from becoming brittle. 

 Cross-linked proteins perform the same 

 function in our bones and teeth. Without 

 these longer proteins, teeth, bones and 

 the oyster shell would easily crumble 

 and break. 



Wheeler and his 

 colleagues decided to 

 cross-link polyaspartic 

 protein analogues, 

 creating a longer, 

 larger, heavier polymer 

 with a "big, open 

 weave." This bigger 

 polymer imitates the 

 oyster protein's 

 absorbency characteris- 

 tics, sopping up more 

 than 80 times its weight 

 in water and qualifying 

 it as a superabsorbent. 



Again, the polymer 

 has potential for 

 commercial use in 

 disposable diapers 

 and sanitary consumer 

 goods. It is a thirsty 

 absorbent with a 

 unique advantage: 

 biodegradability. 



But a biodegrad- 

 able superabsorbent 

 would need to be 

 coupled with other 

 degradable diaper 

 components. So the 

 pressure is on to 

 create such products 

 and reduce the landfill 

 space and health hazard 

 created by billions of 

 dirty diapers. 



Meanwhile, 

 researchers at Donlar 

 Corp. in Bedford Park. 

 111., have been studying 

 an unexpected use for the smaller 

 polyaspartates. They learned that the 

 polyaspartic analogue helps plants 

 absorb nutrients from the soil. The 

 increased nutrient uptake increases 

 yields and lessens the time of maturation 

 in crops such as cotton, corn, soybeans, 



Continued 



COASTWATCH 17 



