Preparation and evaluation of catfish protein as a wood adhesive

Abstract

In order to decrease the usage of formaldehyde and petroleum-derived raw materials, there has been a lot of interest in using protein-based wood adhesives as more eco-friendly and less hazardous alternatives. Fish proteins can be extracted from fish and are known to have good adhesive properties. In this work, we extracted the protein from catfish skin and characterized its effectiveness as a wood adhesive. Upon analysis, this protein from catfish skin (a byproduct of catfish processing) performed well as an adhesive, with similar (or slightly better) dry adhesive strength relative to cottonseed protein isolate. The blend of catfish protein and cottonseed protein displayed about the same dry adhesive strength when compared to catfish protein alone. The hot water resistance of catfish protein and cottonseed protein was comparable, but the 1:1 blend exhibited improved performance than the two proteins by themselves. These results suggest that the protein from catfish skin may be a suitable material for wood adhesive applications.