Studies On The Preparation Of Functional Membrane Materials By Human Hair Keratin

Keratin, a kind of protein, exists widely in human and animal organs including epidermis, hair, wool, feather, hoof and horn. The natural keratin is full of value if being recovered. The natural keratin is of great value if being recovered. However, the valuable material is not being fully utilized in many cases, resulting in waste of the natural resource and pollution of the environment. The aim of the thesis is to explore a novel biomedical material and proton conductive membrane leading to an improved utilization of keratin from hair. The process of measuring the degree of hair reducing quantitatively was studied. The variables investigated include the concentration of reducing agent, reaction time and temperature. The result of orthogonal experiments showed that when the hair was reduced by 0.1mol/L mercaptoethanol solution at 45℃ for 10h, the highest reducing ratio of disulfide bonds was high to 61%. Researches on how to prepare keratin membrane from the hair by hot-pressing and conductive and mechanics performance were carried out. The conductivity, extension ratio, H2 permeability, and the max strength of the membranes were measured. The membrane performance as a function of the preparation conductions such as the oxidation time, powder mass, the pressure and temperature was also studied. Another research on the effect of oxidation time and temperature on the yield and size distribution of the keratin powder was also carried out. The experimental result shows there is no effect of oxidation degree on the chemical structure of keratin powder. In addition, after the glutaraldehyde was dripped into the membrane, the max strength of it was increased, however, the extension ratio was decreased.