Hoti Gjylije, Caldera Fabrizio, Trotta Francesco, Zoccola Marina, Patrucco Alessia, Anceschi Anastasia
Department of Chemistry, University of Turin, Via P. Giuria 7, 10125 Turin, Italy.
Department of Drug Science and Technology, University of Turin, Via P. Giuria 9, 10125 Turin, Italy.
ACS Omega. 2024 Oct 16;9(43):43319-43330. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c09133. eCollection 2024 Oct 29.
Wool waste is a huge environmental problem that needs to be addressed in order to avoid the continuous accumulation of biohazardous waste in landfills. In recent years, wool has proven to be an excellent source of keratin that can be used for various purposes. But never before has keratin from wool waste been used as a building block to synthesize a well-known class of biopolymers called nanosponges. Typically, nanosponges are produced by the reaction of cyclodextrins with an appropriate cross-linker to obtain an insoluble hyper-cross-linked polymer, which has applications in various fields. For this reason, a novel, affordable approach for the synthesis of a novel class of nanosponge using wool keratin as the building block has been presented. The keratin nanosponge was synthesized by reacting keratin with pyromellitic dianhydride as a cross-linking agent. The formation of a cross-linked polymer was successfully confirmed by CHNS-elemental analysis, TGA, DSC, FTIR-ATR, SEM, and water absorption capacity measurements. Surprisingly, the keratin-based nanosponge showed ∼50% uptake of heavy metals after only 24 h of contact time. The adsorption kinetics was also evaluated, indicating a pseudo-second-order model fit and the mechanism is predominantly the intraparticle diffusion process. The novel synthesized nanosponge proved to be a possible alternative for wastewater treatment.
羊毛废料是一个严重的环境问题，需要加以解决，以避免生物危险废物在垃圾填埋场中持续堆积。近年来，羊毛已被证明是角蛋白的优质来源，可用于多种用途。但此前从未有人将羊毛废料中的角蛋白用作构建模块来合成一类名为纳米海绵的知名生物聚合物。通常，纳米海绵是通过环糊精与合适的交联剂反应制备得到一种不溶性超交联聚合物，其在各个领域都有应用。因此，本文提出了一种新颖且经济实惠的方法，以羊毛角蛋白为构建模块合成一类新型纳米海绵。通过使角蛋白与均苯四甲酸二酐作为交联剂反应来合成角蛋白纳米海绵。通过CHNS元素分析、热重分析（TGA）、差示扫描量热法（DSC）、傅里叶变换红外衰减全反射光谱（FTIR-ATR）、扫描电子显微镜（SEM）和吸水能力测量等手段成功证实了交联聚合物的形成。令人惊讶的是，基于角蛋白的纳米海绵在仅接触24小时后就显示出约50%的重金属吸收量。还评估了吸附动力学，结果表明符合准二级模型，其机制主要是颗粒内扩散过程。新合成的纳米海绵被证明是废水处理的一种可能替代方案。
