Preparation And Properties Of Carbon Nanotubes And Graphene Enhanced Keratin Fibers

To promote the recycling of waste wool,keratin was extracted from the waste wool using L-cysteine as reducing agent,spinning dope was prepared by dissolving the regenerated keratin in the sodium carbonate-sodium bicarbonate buffer.Multi-walled carbon nanotubes were functionalized with 4-substituted benzoic acid via direct Friedel-Crafts acylation.Regenerated keratin/functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes composite fibers were wet-spun from the mixed dope of F-MWCNTs suspension and keratin solution.The results show that F-MWCNTs were homogeneously dispersed in keratin matrix without any aggregation.With addition of F-MWCNTs,the composite fibers present greater crystallinity and content of ?-sheet than pure keratin fibers.A low addition of F-MWCNTs,enhanced the mechanical properties of composite fibers,the highest tensile strength of the keratin/F-MWCNTs composite fibers reaches 91.5±12.6 MPa with 0.15 wt.%F-MWCNTs,which is improved by 139%in comparison with that of pure keratin fibers.Graphene oxide was prepared by Hummers,method,keratin/GO composite fibers were prepared.The highest tensile strength of the keratin/GO composite fibers reaches 142.6±55.8 MPa with 0.10 wt.%GO,which is improved by 61%in comparison with that of pure keratin fibers.