Valorization of Chicken Feather Waste: Fabrication of Keratin‐Chitosan Biofilms

Abstract

According to scientists, keratin is one of the most abundant fibrous materials in nature after cellulose and chitin in the world. Several nature fibrous materials have a wide range of application starting from biomedical application to the construction sector, and especially the textile sector. The uses of natural fibers in these sectors are economical for increasing their specific properties, such as antibacterial properties, flexibility, tensile strength, shear strength, toughness, etc. This paper presented a new type of keratin‐chitosan biofilms with the separation of keratin from waste chicken feathers. The laboratory‐scale keratin extraction process was designed. The keratin extraction percentage of different lixiviants (NaOH; NaOH+Na2S; Na2S) were studied and compared each other to understand the reaction process. The chosen reaction parameters were lixiviant concentration, reaction time, and temperature in an attempt to figure out their effects on the extraction of keratin. The highest extraction value was achieved at 60 °C and 400 rpm for 6 h, and 0.5 M Na2S per 5 g of chicken feather powder. After obtaining keratin powder from the chicken feather powder, the keratin and chitosan powders were mixed in a certain ratio. Afterwards the polyvinyl alcohol was added into the mixture of keratin and chitosan at 100 °C until forming the biofilms. The properties and structure of the biofilms were characterized and antibacterial properties of films were examined. Owing to its enormous extraction performance using common and cheap chemicals and simple equipment at ambient conditions, the pile processing method has great promise for the keratin bio‐waste's industrially.

Atık Kaz Tüyünden Keratin İzolasyon Yöntemleri: Etkili Bir Karşılaştırma

“…Sinkiewicz et al obtained 84% and 82% efficiency, respectively, by using mercaptoethanol and sodium bisulfite [27]; however, in our study, similar keratin yield was obtained at a lower cost. Gül Çelik et al also proved that the yield increased as the temperature and time increased, and they observed the best yield at 60 °C [26]. Further, 25 °C obtained 87.6% efficiency [26] as in our study.…”

“…Gül Çelik et al also proved that the yield increased as the temperature and time increased, and they observed the best yield at 60 °C [26]. Further, 25 °C obtained 87.6% efficiency [26] as in our study. Similarly, the previous study determined the optimum yield for keratin production within 2.5 hours at 23°C [5].…”

“…Sodium sulfide (Na2S) was chosen as the emulsifier in the first place because positive results were obtained with this chemical in many previous studies [23,24,25]. In general, physical conditions such as temperature, time, and concentration of reducing agent had a significant effect on the final yield of the isolated keratin [26]. Gül Çelik et al found the best protein yield in Na2S (93.3%) compared to the extraction using only NaOH as a result of keratin extraction from chicken feathers [26].…”

“…In general, physical conditions such as temperature, time, and concentration of reducing agent had a significant effect on the final yield of the isolated keratin [26]. Gül Çelik et al found the best protein yield in Na2S (93.3%) compared to the extraction using only NaOH as a result of keratin extraction from chicken feathers [26]. Similarly, Pourjavaheri et al found the yield as 88% in the extraction with sodium sulfide, but 66% with L-cysteine method [24].…”

Deciphering Mechanism of Assembly of Keratin within Nanofibrous Matrix: Expanding the Horizon of Electrospun Polymer/Protein Composites

“…[20] Hence it was the obvious choice for spinning together with keratin hydrolysates to provide them with a structural framework. There are many reports on the fabrication of PVA/Keratin composites, [21] which are based on the use of different sources of keratin (feather, [22] wool, [23] hair [24] etc), different types of keratin (reduced [25] or oxidised [26] ), different content of keratin [27] and their corresponding influence, different crosslinking procedure [25,28] and different solvent systems. [23,24,27] However, this is the very first attempt of studying the effect of different extraction techniques on keratin's assembly under crosslinking conditions within the fibrous matrix.…”