Water-resistant plant protein-based nanofiber membranes

作者：Lubasova Daniela; Mullerova Jana; Netravali Anil N^*

来源：Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 2015, 132(16): 41852.

DOI：10.1002/app.41852

• biodegradable
• biopolymers and renewable polymers
• cross-inking
• proteins
• thermosets

Developing green and sustainable alternative materials to replace petroleum based ones is the need of the day. Such green materials are becoming popular because they can be composted once their useful life is over. In the current research, protein-based nanofibers were fabricated without the use of any toxic cross-linking agent. Defatted soy flour was purified using an acid-wash process to obtain material with higher protein content, blended with gluten, and successfully electrospun into nanofibers with the help of polyvinyl alcohol. Oxidation of sucrose with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) was carried out to synthesize oxidized sugar-containing aldehyde (-CHO) groups and used as green cross-linker. The cross-linking quality of protein-based nanofibers modified by oxidized sugar was found to be similar to nanofibers cross-linked using toxic glyoxal and show good resistance to water. These novel green protein-based nanofibers can be useful in fabricating inexpensive products with very high specific surface area and highly porous structure.

• 出版日期2015-4-20