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Flexible Biocomposites with Enhanced Interfacial Compatibility Based on Keratin Fibers and Sulfur-Containing Poly(urea-urethane)s

Feathers are made of keratin, a fibrous protein with high content of disulfide-crosslinks and hydrogen-bonds. Feathers have been mainly used as reinforcing fiber in the preparation of biocomposites with a wide variety of polymers, also poly(urea-urethane)s. Surface compatibility between the keratin...

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Autores principales: Aranberri, Ibon, Montes, Sarah, Azcune, Itxaso, Rekondo, Alaitz, Grande, Hans-Jürgen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6403905/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30960981
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym10101056
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author Aranberri, Ibon
Montes, Sarah
Azcune, Itxaso
Rekondo, Alaitz
Grande, Hans-Jürgen
author_facet Aranberri, Ibon
Montes, Sarah
Azcune, Itxaso
Rekondo, Alaitz
Grande, Hans-Jürgen
author_sort Aranberri, Ibon
collection PubMed
description Feathers are made of keratin, a fibrous protein with high content of disulfide-crosslinks and hydrogen-bonds. Feathers have been mainly used as reinforcing fiber in the preparation of biocomposites with a wide variety of polymers, also poly(urea-urethane)s. Surface compatibility between the keratin fiber and the matrix is crucial for having homogenous, high quality composites with superior mechanical properties. Poly(urea-urethane) type polymers are convenient for this purpose due to the presence of polar functionalities capable of forming hydrogen-bonds with keratin. Here, we demonstrate that the interfacial compatibility can be further enhanced by incorporating sulfur moieties in the polymer backbone that lead to new fiber-matrix interactions. We comparatively studied two analogous thermoplastic poly(urea-urethane) elastomers prepared starting from the same isocyanate-functionalized polyurethane prepolymer and two aromatic diamine chain extenders, bis(4-aminophenyl) disulfide (TPUU-SS) and the sulfur-free counterpart bis(4-aminophenyl) methane (TPUU). Then, biocomposites with high feather loadings (40, 50, 60 and 75 wt %) were prepared in a torque rheometer and hot-compressed into flexible sheets. Mechanical characterization showed that TPUU-SS based materials underwent higher improvement in mechanical properties than biocomposites made of the reference TPUU (up to 7.5-fold higher tensile strength compared to neat polymer versus 2.3-fold). Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) images also provided evidence that fibers were completely embedded in the TPUU-SS matrix. Additionally, density, thermal stability, and water absorption of the biocomposites were thoroughly characterized.
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spelling pubmed-64039052019-04-02 Flexible Biocomposites with Enhanced Interfacial Compatibility Based on Keratin Fibers and Sulfur-Containing Poly(urea-urethane)s Aranberri, Ibon Montes, Sarah Azcune, Itxaso Rekondo, Alaitz Grande, Hans-Jürgen Polymers (Basel) Article Feathers are made of keratin, a fibrous protein with high content of disulfide-crosslinks and hydrogen-bonds. Feathers have been mainly used as reinforcing fiber in the preparation of biocomposites with a wide variety of polymers, also poly(urea-urethane)s. Surface compatibility between the keratin fiber and the matrix is crucial for having homogenous, high quality composites with superior mechanical properties. Poly(urea-urethane) type polymers are convenient for this purpose due to the presence of polar functionalities capable of forming hydrogen-bonds with keratin. Here, we demonstrate that the interfacial compatibility can be further enhanced by incorporating sulfur moieties in the polymer backbone that lead to new fiber-matrix interactions. We comparatively studied two analogous thermoplastic poly(urea-urethane) elastomers prepared starting from the same isocyanate-functionalized polyurethane prepolymer and two aromatic diamine chain extenders, bis(4-aminophenyl) disulfide (TPUU-SS) and the sulfur-free counterpart bis(4-aminophenyl) methane (TPUU). Then, biocomposites with high feather loadings (40, 50, 60 and 75 wt %) were prepared in a torque rheometer and hot-compressed into flexible sheets. Mechanical characterization showed that TPUU-SS based materials underwent higher improvement in mechanical properties than biocomposites made of the reference TPUU (up to 7.5-fold higher tensile strength compared to neat polymer versus 2.3-fold). Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) images also provided evidence that fibers were completely embedded in the TPUU-SS matrix. Additionally, density, thermal stability, and water absorption of the biocomposites were thoroughly characterized. MDPI 2018-09-21 /pmc/articles/PMC6403905/ /pubmed/30960981 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym10101056 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Aranberri, Ibon
Montes, Sarah
Azcune, Itxaso
Rekondo, Alaitz
Grande, Hans-Jürgen
Flexible Biocomposites with Enhanced Interfacial Compatibility Based on Keratin Fibers and Sulfur-Containing Poly(urea-urethane)s
title Flexible Biocomposites with Enhanced Interfacial Compatibility Based on Keratin Fibers and Sulfur-Containing Poly(urea-urethane)s
title_full Flexible Biocomposites with Enhanced Interfacial Compatibility Based on Keratin Fibers and Sulfur-Containing Poly(urea-urethane)s
title_fullStr Flexible Biocomposites with Enhanced Interfacial Compatibility Based on Keratin Fibers and Sulfur-Containing Poly(urea-urethane)s
title_full_unstemmed Flexible Biocomposites with Enhanced Interfacial Compatibility Based on Keratin Fibers and Sulfur-Containing Poly(urea-urethane)s
title_short Flexible Biocomposites with Enhanced Interfacial Compatibility Based on Keratin Fibers and Sulfur-Containing Poly(urea-urethane)s
title_sort flexible biocomposites with enhanced interfacial compatibility based on keratin fibers and sulfur-containing poly(urea-urethane)s
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6403905/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30960981
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym10101056
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