Collagen Modified Polyacrylonitrile Preliminary Study

The leather industry is a traditional industry which is characterized by high investment and low output. Only about 25 % of the materials in raw skins or hides can be transformed into leathers in the processing of leather making. As a result, both serious pollution to the environment and waste of valuable resources are caused if the tannery waste is abandoned or decomposed. According to the principle of "Green Chemistry", the resource and value of collagen is studied in the paper with the aim of using the collagen from tannery waste in textile industry.The polyacrylonitrile(PAN) fiber has advantages such as flexibility, good mechanical performance, etc. However, the poor dying ability and mechanical performance limit its application in textile industry. At present, the use of protein to modify the polyacrylonitrile fiber has been reported, but no study may be found to use collagen from tannery waste to modify the polyacrylonitrile fiber.In the present study, collagen was used to modify the polyacrylonitrile fiber by solution polymerization of collagen and acrylonitrile. Effects of monomer concentration, initiator concentration, reaction temperature and reaction time on the copolymerization conversion, polymer concentration and intrinsic viscosity was investigated. The spinnability of solution was also studied, and the theory of the polymerization was discussed. It has been shown that the best polymerization conditions of collagen/AN are: the reaction temperature is 60℃, the concentration of initiator is 1%, the concentration of monomer is 20%, the mass proportion of collagen to AN is 2 to 98, and the reaction time is 8h. A theory for the spin application of solution polymerization of collagen/acrylonitrile is provided.