The need for new composite materials that would exhibit good parameters such as mechanical or thermal properties, while being easily processable and able to undergo biodecomposition after its period of use, has been a great source of inspiration for modern material science. A lot of work has been done in the field of biodegradable polymeric materials throughout almost every aspects of life, from medical materials, through disposable plastic bags to materials used in agriculture. In the latter field, several synthetic and natural polymeric materials are used. The present work will show one such composite, which is an innovative cellulosic-elastomeric material containing a modified protein, thus consisting of components of natural (cotton, protein) and synthetic (carboxylated styrene-butadiene latex) origin. The material could be applied in agriculture for mulching and as such will be directly subjected to the effect of temperature. Therefore, a better understanding of its thermal properties could shed some light on its applicability in real-field conditions. Therefore, TG and DSC analyses were performed, showing that different mechanisms of decomposition occur in the latex film than the coated cotton fabric. The modified keratin also slightly increases the temperature of glass transition. Additionally, the presence of modified keratin increases the susceptibility of the coated fabric to undergo biodecomposition.

The current investigation treats about the influence of waste fodder potato proteins (WFPP) recovered from the starch industry on the mechanical-properties of carboxylated acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber (XNBR). WFPP were characterized and used as a filler of the above mentioned XNBR rubber without or after blending with zinc oxide. The obtained rubber compounds were cured, and mechanical properties such as tensile strength, hardness, and cross-linking density were investigated. It was found that the introduction of WFPP previously blended with zinc oxide into rubber compound increases the cross-linking density of the obtained composites, compared with the vulcanizate without protein, which in turn increases the mechanical properties of the obtained vulcanizates. That occurs thanks to the formation of ion nodes, as testified by equilibrium swelling. The introduction of WFPP into the elastomer matrix also increases the susceptibility of the elastomer to biodecomposition.