Transforming chromium containing collagen wastes into flexible composite sheets using cellulose derivatives: Structural, thermal, and mechanical investigations

Abstract

Leather, footwear, and clothing industries produce significant quantity of chromium containing proteinaceous wastes. One of the major uses of these wastes is to convert them into sheets or boards. However, the previous methods could not provide flexible sheets with desired strength. Here, we describe a simple and efficient method for the preparation of flexible composite sheets using chromium containing collagenous wastes (CS) with the use of cellulose derivatives. The leather wastes have been partially hydrolyzed and converted into composite sheets under microwaves with the addition of 2‐hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC) in varying concentrations from 2.5 to 20 wt%. A comprehensive strength as high as 3.14 ± 0.45 MPa with a softness of 3.8 ± 0.2 mm is achieved with the addition of 20 wt% HEC in the CS/HEC composite sheets. Scanning electron microscopic and mercury intrusion porosimetric analysis demonstrate the reduction in pores, especially micro pores (<50 μm), when the concentration of HEC is higher thereby showing improved interfacial adhesion of HEC onto CS. Infrared spectroscopy result indicates the presence of distinctive bands associated with both CS and HEC. There is also a reasonable increase in the thermal stability of the CS/HEC sheets as the content of HEC increases. Hence, the developed CS/HEC composite sheets were found to be flexible and have improved thermo‐mechanical properties, which are suitable for applications in leather product and allied industries. POLYM. COMPOS., 2011. © 2011 Society of Plastics Engineers

Conducting Leathers for Smart Product Applications

“…The FTIR spectra of control leather possess characteristic peaks corresponding to amide I (1700− 1600 cm −1 ), amide II (1600−1500 cm −1 ), and amide III (1300−1200 cm −1 ) bands. 22 Further it also shows an additional peak at 1458 cm −1 corresponding to aliphatic side chain groups of amino acids present in collagen. These characteristic peaks of collagen are not significantly altered upon single and double in situ polymerization of pyrrole as evidenced from Figure 4a.…”

Physico‐mechanical, thermal, and ultraviolet light barrier properties of collagen hydrolysate films from leather solid wastes incorporated with nano TiO2

“…Leather manufacturing plays an important role in today's global economy because of export realization, employs employment generation, and social development . The leather manufacturing processes, such as trimming, buffing, shaving, and splitting, generate a large amount of leather solid wastes, which are usually incinerated or discarded in landfills or inappropriate places . The major component of these leather solid wastes mainly was fibrous collagen …”

“…As well as ecological awareness of society, the difficulty of finding new landfills and the increase in dumping charges have led to a steady increase in demand for the management of these wastes . However, solid waste from leather processing can be valorized as CH, and the marketability of this CH with a potential application could encourage the leather industry to recycle them instead of dumping them into landfills …”

“…[1][2][3] The leather manufacturing processes, such as trimming, buffing, shaving, and splitting, generate a large amount of leather solid wastes, which are usually incinerated or discarded in landfills or inappropriate places. [4][5][6][7] The major component of these leather solid wastes mainly was fibrous collagen. [4,5,[8][9][10][11] As well as ecological awareness of society, the difficulty of finding new landfills and the increase in dumping charges have led to a steady increase in demand for the management of these wastes.…”

“…[4,8,12,13] However, solid waste from leather processing can be valorized as CH, and the marketability of this CH with a potential application could encourage the leather industry to recycle them instead of dumping them into landfills. [7,8,[14][15][16] Non-biodegradable fossil fuel-derived plastics have been increasingly used as packaging materials because of their economic comparisons with renewable polymers. [17,18] However, the fossil fuel-based polymers have created greater environmental concern, and limited availability of petroleum resources have driven packaging researchers to investigate the properties of biodegradable polymers based on renewable resource for packaging materials.…”