Preliminary study on preparing carboxymethyl cellulose–keratin biofilm

Abstract

Keratin is a structural protein. Keratin can be obtained from chicken feathers. At present, chicken feathers are one of the great potentials of waste because of its abundance and cheap price. CMC has a similar structure to cellulose. Cellulose is very abundant in nature and its existence as waste and CMC is a derivative of natural cellulose polymers that are easily degraded. This paper reports our preliminary work on developing novel composite biofilm from both natural biopolymers to provide novel environmentally friendly biomaterials. Keratin solution was prepared from chicken feathers by the acid method. Variations in the number of CMCs were used to see differences in biofilm rigidity. The size of soluble keratin was measured using PSA, surface topography of biofilms was observed using SEM and FTIR was used to observe the presence of keratin embedded in biofilms. Based on the results of the PSA analysis, the size of soluble keratin was 1570.8 ± 26.30437 nm. FTIR analysis of CMC-keratin biofilm content showed an absorption peak in the area of 1240 cm-1 - 1546 cm-1 which the signature of an amide band which confirms the presence of keratin (protein) in the biofilm. SEM showed the surface structure of CMC-keratin biofilms forming a fibrous pattern. In this study, we concluded that CMC-keratin biofilm was generated, and it potentially can be developed further to generate environmentally friendly biomaterials.