TY - JOUR
T1 - Ductile keratin films from deep eutectic solvent-fractionated feathers
AU - Nuutinen, Emmi Maria
AU - Virtanen, Tommi
AU - Lantto, Raija
AU - Vähä-Nissi, Mika
AU - Jääskeläinen, Anna Stiina
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding for this work was received from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program under Grant Agreement 723268 on a project KaRMA2020. The authors thank Markku Suikka for the help with the DES treatment, Ulla Holopainen-Mantila and Liisa Änäkäinen for carrying out the CLSM imaging, Tiina Pöhler for the SEM imaging, Hille Raut-koski for carrying out the WVP measurements, Päivi Matikainen for performing MALDI-TOF MS, and Vuokko Liukkonen for the WCA measurements.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Royal Society of Chemistry.
PY - 2021/8/3
Y1 - 2021/8/3
N2 - Feathers, an industrial by-product, are a valuable source of keratin that could be used, for example, in the preparation of films for biomedical and packaging applications. However, the utilisation of feather keratin requires scalable processes to convert feathers into a feasible keratin stream. This paper shows how deep eutectic solvent (DES) fractionated feathers could be converted into strong films. In the DES fractionation process, two keratin fractions with different molecular weights were obtained. The films made of the high molecular weight keratin fraction had better mechanical properties and stability against moisture than the films made of the low molecular weight keratin fraction. The strength properties were further improved by cross-linking the keratin with diglycidyl ether enabling the formation of a uniform keratin network, whereas glutaraldehyde did not show a clear cross-linking effect. These keratin films could be used, for example, in food packaging or medical applications such as wound care.
AB - Feathers, an industrial by-product, are a valuable source of keratin that could be used, for example, in the preparation of films for biomedical and packaging applications. However, the utilisation of feather keratin requires scalable processes to convert feathers into a feasible keratin stream. This paper shows how deep eutectic solvent (DES) fractionated feathers could be converted into strong films. In the DES fractionation process, two keratin fractions with different molecular weights were obtained. The films made of the high molecular weight keratin fraction had better mechanical properties and stability against moisture than the films made of the low molecular weight keratin fraction. The strength properties were further improved by cross-linking the keratin with diglycidyl ether enabling the formation of a uniform keratin network, whereas glutaraldehyde did not show a clear cross-linking effect. These keratin films could be used, for example, in food packaging or medical applications such as wound care.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85113712632&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1039/d1ra05123g
DO - 10.1039/d1ra05123g
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85113712632
VL - 11
SP - 27512
EP - 27522
JO - RSC Advances
JF - RSC Advances
SN - 2046-2069
IS - 44
ER -