PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ELECTROSPUN WOOL KERATIN/POLYETHYLENE OXIDE NANOFIBERS FOR AIR FILTRATION APPLICATIONS

In this work, the wool keratin/polyethylene oxide (PEO) nanofibers used for air filtration were prepared and characterized. Keratin proteins were first extracted from wool fibers by sulphitolysis, and then blended with PEO to improve the processability of keratin. Keratin/PEO nanofibers were produced by the electrospinning of the blend aqueous solutions. The rheological and conductive characteristics of the keratin/PEO blend solutions were studied, and correlated with the morphological and structural properties of the electrospun nanofiber membranes. Furthermore, the keratin/PEO nanofiber membranes were composited with polypropylene nonwoven fabric with the aim of being used as filtration materials. The observations by scanning electron microscopy showed that the morphological structures and diameter distributions of the keratin/PEO nanofibers were affected by the content of keratin. The filtration tests revealed that the filtration efficiency of the nanofiber nonwoven composites was greatly higher than that of polypropylene nonwoven fabric, and increased with the prolongation of electrospinning time. This study points out that keratin/PEO nanofibers can be used as promising materials for air filtration.