Fabrication of wool keratin/polyethylene oxide nano-membrane from wool fabric waste

Abstract

Wool keratin and wool keratin/poly(ethylene oxide) nanofibrous membranes were prepared through the decoloration of dyes in the wool waste and extraction and electrospinning of regenerated wool keratin. The effect of pH, ironphthalocyanine and H2O2 concentration on catalytic oxidation were also studied. Under the support of ironphthalocyanine with better structure stability compared with other metallophthalocyanines, most azo groups of dyes could be broken into colorless products under the catalytic oxidation of ironphthalocyanine and H2O2 at pH = 10, and the decolorization percentage was about 94.2% in 210 min. To improve the spinnability of the extracted wool keratin, poly(ethylene oxide) was introduced into the keratin electrospinning and with the increased loading ratio of poly(ethylene oxide), the diameter of the nanofibers thickened with a value of 546 ± 312 nm for the 70/30 wool keratin-poly(ethyleneoxide) nanofibrous membranes. Decolorizing dyes and extracting wool keratin for the preparation of keratin-based nanomembranes was benefit to recycles of wool waste and decreases the environmental pressure.