Environmentally friendly, antibacterial materials from recycled keratin incorporated electrospun PLA films with tunable properties

The traditional disposal of chicken feathers includes expensive and challenging steps such as incineration and burying in landfills. Keratin is a valuable component of chicken feather waste recycled from poultry industry. The fibrous intermediate protein nature along with unique chemical composition enables its use in food, pharmaceutical, cosmetics and agricultural industries. The current study proposes an innovative valorization of recycled keratin from chicken feathers combined with polylactic acid (PLA), a viable bio-based polymer obtained from plant-based food stock. As a novel application, this study explains the preparation, electrospinning parameter optimization and performance assessment of recycled keratin electrospun with PLA. The structural, thermal, thermo-mechanical, morphological, antibacterial and surface wetting properties of keratin-incorporated electrospun PLA films were investigated. The disruption of crystallinity, hence the processability of both biopolymer via electrospinning is demonstrated. The nanofiber size, thermal, thermo-mechanical, antibacterial and surface wetting properties of electrospun films can be tuned by keratin content. This study provides environmentally friendly, recycled, bio-based material alternatives with tunable material properties that can be used in multitude of applications including environmental food packaging.