Research On Wool Keratin Extraction And Its Application

China is one of the top wool producing countries in the world.Every year,a large number of unspinnable wool fibers are abandoned in wool textile industry,which is not only a waste of resources,but also a pollution of environment.Nowadays people pay more and more attention to environmental protection and the reuse of textiles is becoming one of the most important parts in textile industry.The extraction of wool keratin from the abandoned wool fibers can turn "waste"into wealth,which is in accordance with the growing trend towards green and sustainable development.Wool keratin,one kind of natural green biomaterial,has already attracted much concern.The development of efficient,economical and eco-friendly wool keratin extraction technology has turned out to be an important research subject.The application of wool keratin will be expectedly widened.The process of extracting keratin from wool with enzyme was systematically studied in this paper.The optimal conditions for wool keratin extraction were obtained by analyzing the effect of temperature,time,pH value and enzyme dosage on wool solubility.Sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis(SDS-PAGE),Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy with attenuated total internal reflectance mode measurement(FTIR-ATR),wide-angle X diffraction(WAXD),thermogravimetry(TG)and differential thermal gravimetry(DTG)were explored to analyze the structure and properties of the obtained keratin(E-keratin).The mechanism of wool dissolution was also discussed by comparing with the keratin obtained by molten urea method(U-keratin)and reductive method(R-keratin).The results indicated that the solubility of wool and the yield of E-keratin were 88.9%and 86.2%respectively.The characteristic disulfide bonds in E-keratin were partly broken.The molecular weight distribution was<2kD,indicating that the E-keratin was peptide.Its crystallinity was 45.14%.In addition,E-keratin's thermal stability was a little poor comparing with U-keratin and R-keratin.Two different kinds of keratin,keratin protein(k-protein)and keratin peptide(k-peptide),were applied to the damaged hair care in our research.The mechanism of hair care by k-protein and k-peptide was discussed by comparing hair's surface morphology,hygroscopicity,moisture retention,moisture content,mechanical performances and tribological characteristics of the keratin treated damaged hair sample with the untreated one.The research demonstrated that after k-protein and k-peptide treatment,hair's moisture adsorption and desorption performances were all improved obviously.The hair became smooth,strong and lustrous.Since the damage caused by bleaching was minimized after keratin treatment,keratin could effectively repair the damaged hair and improve combability.The application of wool keratin in anti-felting finishing of wool fabric was also discussed in this paper.Three different processes:keratin,keratin/reductant,pretreatment-keratin/reductant,were used in anti-felting finishing of wool fabric.The optimal conditions were obtained by analyzing the anti-felting effect and mechanical properties of the treated samples.The results indicated that the supplemental reductant and hydrophilizing pretreatment all showed positive effect on anti-felting finishing.The shrinkage of woven wool fabric treated with the optimal conditions decreased from 12.36%to 1.11%,satisfied with the specification of TWC TM31.The treated wool fabric showed good strength retention,soft handle and no yellowing.Wang lijing(majoyed in the Textile Chemistry and Dyeing and Finishing Engineering)Supervised by Associate Professor Zhou Aojia and Professor Yan Kelu.