Preparation of Nonwoven and Green Composites from Collagen Fibrous Networks

Abstract

The disposal of solid wastes, such as trimmings and splits generated in various manufacturing processes in a tannery is a serious challenge to the hides and leather industries. Most of these wastes are transported out of processing plants for landfills, not only incurring the expense of transportation, but also creating environmental issues. Our effort to address these new challenges is to develop new uses and novel biobased products from solid wastes to improve prospective markets for the hides and leather industries. We hypothesize collagen fiber networks derived from solid fibrous wastes can be utilized to prepare high performance green composites and air filters, of which both have a great market potential. Collagen fiber networks were obtained from split hides that have been processed to remove the noncollagenous materials through the hair removal, liming, and bating steps. Earlier studies were devoted to understand the effects of dehydration on the resultant fiber networks and the effects of processing steps such as bating, pickling and crosslinking treatments on the morphology and physical properties of the fiber networks derived from un-tanned hides, which will be the starting material for constructing air filters and green composites. This study focuses on preparations of nonwoven and green composites derived from fiber networks. Non-woven sheets were prepared using paper-making technology. They were then used as reinforced components to make composites that use gelatin as the matrix. Mechanical properties were evaluated for the resultant composites; results showed that the fiber sizes and gelatin content have significant effects on the properties of the resultant nonwoven and composites.