79 / 2021-06-30 17:04:55

Preparation and adsorption properties of feather keratin-PHEMA double-network gel

Waste biomass，Resource utilization, Feather keratin，Double-network gel, Mechanical strength, Adsorption property

In recent years, with the rapid development of science and technology, the shortage of all kinds of resources has become increasingly prominent, which also causes the continuous deterioration of the global environment. In order to protect the environment, promoting sustainable economic and social development, utilization of renewable resources to substitute petrochemical products can alleviate resource shortages. Keratin as the renewable resources mostly derive from poultry processing industry. Most of them are discarded, causing serious environmental pollution, even bringing diseases to people. Therefore, the environmental pollution problems can be solved through recycling and utilization of renewable resources such as feather.

In this work, a high strength feather keratin-poly-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (FK-PHEMA) double network hydrogel was prepared by impregnation-polymerization method. Feather keratin (FK) is cross-linked by ethylene glycol diglycidyl ether to form the first network. The second network was prepared by polymerization of β-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA). The obtained FK-PHEMA gel was characterized by IR, SEM and TGA methods. The thermal stability of the microstructure and pore size distribution of specific surface area were characterized by XRD and BET analysis. The mechanical properties were tested by electronic universal testing machine. The results show that the strength of feather keratin hydrogel was significantly improved with the introduction of the second network PHEMA. The obtained FK- PHEMA gel has a porous structure with small specific surface area. The FK- PHEMA gel was applied to the adsorption of methylene blue (MB) in water. The results show that it has good adsorption effects on MB. The maximum adsorption amounts are 198.1 mg/g. The adsorption mechanism is a typical two-stage model accompanied by swelling. The first stage follows the quasi-second-order kinetic model, and second stage follows intra-particle diffusion model. Therefore, FK-PHEMA gel is expected to be used as an adsorption material in the field of environmental protection.