Abstract
There is a major focus on natural biopolymers of bacterial, animal, or plant origin as ecological materials, replacing petrochemical products. Biologically derived polylactide (PLA), polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) possess interesting properties, but they are currently too expensive for most applications. Therefore, researchers try to find other biopolymers that are both durable and cheap enough to replace plastics in some applications. One possible candidate is gelatin, which can be transformed into a thin, translucent film that is flexible and has stable and high mechanical properties. Here, we present a method of synthesizing a composite material from gelatin. For preparation of such material, we used gelatin of animal origin (pig skin) with the addition of casein, food gelatin, glycerin, and enzymes as biocatalysts of chemical modification and further extraction of gelatin from collagen. Compositions forming films with homogeneous shapes and good mechanical properties were selected (Tensile strength reaches 3.11 MPa, while the highest value of elongation at break is 97.96%). After administering the samples to microbial scaring, the composites completely decomposed under the action of microorganisms within 30 days, which proves their biodegradation.
Highlights
Polymeric materials, from the earliest years, were widely used in medicine and other areas of industry
Examples of polymers derived from biomass include: agropolymers from agricultural raw materials; polymers obtained by the production of microorganisms; conventionally and chemically synthesized polymers from monomers obtained from agricultural raw materials; and polymers derived from fossil fuels
This work has presented the results of research on biopolymer composites based on animal-derived gelatin with the addition of casein, food gelatin, glycerin, cellulose acetate, chitosan, and agarose
Summary
From the earliest years, were widely used in medicine and other areas of industry. Incineration of plastic waste causes the emission of toxic compounds (e.g., dioxins) to the atmosphere and entails certain limitations in the availability of effective and economically profitable facilities or devices for burning this type of materials [10] As a consequence, it leads to the determination of the environmental toxicity of pollutants, known as their ecotoxicity [11,12,13,14,15,16]. Biodegradable polymers have a great potential in many applications including tissue engineering, gene therapy, and regeneration They can be used in temporary devices for implantology and implant coatings [23]. Optimization of the time and concentration of the applied acid to the gelatin system resulted in obtaining a different degree of cross-linking of the polymeric material. A lower degree of deformation at higher temperatures was achieved for gelatin cross-linked in this way as shown by rheological analysis
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