The Preparation Of Keration Nano Functional Fiber And Its Application

Wool keratin fiber, one of early human use of natural fibers has become an important raw materialin textile industry with a large number of excellent performances that unmatched by other fibers. Butdue to the limitations of wool quality and textile technology, a great quantity of short fibers and crudefibers are discarded during wool weaving every year and a mass of waste wool keratin textile fibers areabandoned in our daily life. In order to reduce the wool keratin waste and environmental pollution, theresearchers widespread pay attention on the study of preparation method of wool keratin solution andthe further application of wool keratin powder in conventional fields, such as textiles, packages,sanitation and filtration.In this paper, first of all, the wool keratin was extracted by the improved method ofoxidation-reduction C. Then, the nanofiber mats of wool keratin/PEO and wool keratin/PEO/ZnO QDswere obtained through the electrospinning. In order to increase the water resistance and strength ofnanofiber memberane, the as-spun mats were crosslinked by the crosslinking agent EDC/NHS. Theadsorption capacity for heavy-metals of crosslinked nanofibre mats was studied. Finally, the biologicalproperties of the fabricated scaffolds from electrospun wool keratin/PEO/ZnO QDs were evaluated.The effect of various factors on the process of extraction such as the dissolution time, dissolutiontemperature, the wool fiber concentration was studied. The optimum conditions to dissolve the woolkeratin fibers were obtained with3wt.%wool keratin fiber,90°C for2hours.The mechanism of oxidation-reduction C method to dissolve wool fibers was explored throughthe FT-IR, TGA, XRD and SEM analysis. The results indicated that oxidation-reduction C method has agood ability to dissolve the wool fibers. The regenerated wool keratin exhibited a β-sheet structure. Thethermal stability of regenerated wool keratin films decreased slightly because of the part of the disulfidebond breakage by oxidation reaction. Secondly, electrospinning process of wool keratin composite withPEO was studied. The composite solution was electrospun with a voltage of13-15kV, and a24-25cmworking distance between the tip to the aluminum foil-grounded collector, the concentration of spinningsolution is3%. The optimum condition of crosslinking time is48hours. Results showed that as theincrease of crosslinking time, the fiber membrane strength, breaking elongation rate and swelling rate, dissolution rate and soluble loss rate increase gradually. The mechanism of chemical crosslinking wasexplored through the FT-IR, TGA, XRD and SEM analysis, the results indicated that the chemicalcrosslinking was happened between wool keratin molecule. And at the same time the mechanicalproperties and thermodynamic performance of crosslinked nanofiber mats were improved bycrosslinking. The adsorption capacity for heavy-metals of crosslinked nanofibre mats was studied. Theinitial metal ion concentration and adsorption time was evaluated. Moreover, the adsorption equilibriumof keratin/PEO nanofibre mats was studied and the adsorption type is similar to the adsorption isothermcurve of Freundich. Finally, wool keratin/PEO/ZnO functional nanofiber membrane was electrospunned.The existence of ZnO quantum dots was detected through FT-IR and fluorescence microscope. Theultraviolet transmittance of wool keratin/PEO/ZnO functional nanofiber membrane was much lower inthe250-400nm, which showed a good UV resistance. The biocompatibility of as-spun functionalnanofiber mats was researched by the cell culture tests and the results showed that biocompatibility ofwool keratin/PEO/ZnO composite functional nanofiber membrane is much better.