Department of Chemistry of Tanning Materials and Leather Technology, National Research Center, Dokki, Giza 12622, Egypt. elshahat
Spectrochim Acta A Mol Biomol Spectrosc. 2012 Feb;86:33-8. doi: 10.1016/j.saa.2011.09.052. Epub 2011 Oct 17.
Tanning industry produces a large quantity of solid wastes which contain hide proteins in the form of protein shavings containing chromium salts. The chromium wastes are the main concern from an environmental stand point of view, because chrome wastes posses a significant disposal problem. The present work is devoted to investigate the possibility of utilizing these wastes as a source of organic semi-conductors as an alternative method instead of the conventional ones. The chemical characterization of these wastes was determined. In addition, the Horizontal Attenuated Total Reflection (HATR) FT-IR spectroscopic analysis and optical parameters were also carried out for chromated samples. The study showed that the chromated samples had suitable absorbance and transmittance in the wavelength range (500-850 nm). Presence of chromium salt in the collagen samples increases the absorbance which improves the optical properties of the studied samples and leads to decrease the optical energy gap. The obtained optical energy gap gives an impression that the environmentally hazardous chrome shavings wastes can be utilized as a possible source of natural organic semiconductors with direct and indirect energy gap. This work opens the door to use some hazardous wastes in the manufacture of electronic devices such as IR-detectors, solar cells and also as solar cell windows.
制革行业会产生大量的固体废弃物，其中含有以含铬盐的皮屑蛋白质形式存在的皮蛋白。从环境角度来看，铬废物是主要关注点，因为铬废物存在着重大的处置问题。本工作致力于研究利用这些废物作为有机半导体的来源的可能性，作为传统方法的替代方法。对这些废物进行了化学特性分析。此外，还对铬化样品进行了水平衰减全反射（HATR）FT-IR 光谱分析和光学参数分析。研究表明，铬化样品在波长范围（500-850nm）内具有合适的吸光度和透光率。胶原样品中铬盐的存在增加了吸光度，从而改善了研究样品的光学性能，并导致光学能隙减小。获得的光学能隙表明，环境危害性的铬屑废物可用作具有直接和间接能隙的天然有机半导体的可能来源。这项工作为在制造电子设备（如红外探测器、太阳能电池以及太阳能电池窗）中使用一些危险废物开辟了道路。
