Preparation and characterization of rabbit hair keratin hydrogel

Abstract

Protein-based hydrogel with the characters of environmentally friendly, resource saving and excellent biocompatibility has become a hot topic in the field polymer materials. In this paper, the rabbit hair keratin was extracted from waste rabbit hair ang then prepared into hydrogel by means of heating-cooling. The conclusion is that the molecular weight of rabbit hair keratin measured by SDS-PAGE concentrated in 40∼60kDa and rabbit hair keratin hydrogel in 11∼22 kDa. The forming conditions such as concentration and temperature of preparing hydrogel were experimented by using variable-controlling approach, the formation concentration of keratin should be over 125mg/ml and the temperature over 55°C. Various characterization techniques were used to determine the physical and chemical property of the hydrogel. As proved by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), covalent bonds and three-dimensional porous structure with many interconnected pores had been successfully formed. They were also characterized by thermogravimetric analysis (TG) and swelling test, etc. The consequence showed that the equilibrium moisture content can reach up to 20.21% and the swelling rate as high as 9.55%, which were inversely proportional to the concentration of keratin. Furthermore, the hydrogel had good thermal stability, the initial decomposition temperature is around 204°C. It is indicating that the excellent properties of rabbit hair keratin hydrogel can be further studied.