Thermoplastic films from cyanoethylated chicken feathers

This paper demonstrates that etherification can be used to develop thermoplastic films from chicken feathers. Feathers are inexpensive, abundantly available and renewable resources but have limited applications mainly due to their non-thermoplasticity. However, it has been shown that chemical modifications such as grafting can make feathers thermoplastic. Etherification provides better thermoplasticity to biopolymers compared to chemical modifications such as acetylation. In this research, chicken feathers were etherified using acrylonitrile and various concentrations of catalyst. Even at low weight gain (3.6%), cyanoethylated feathers were thermoplastic and showed a melting peak at 167 °C. Films compression molded from the cyanoethylated feathers had strength ranging from 1.6 to 4.2 MPa and elongation ranging from 5.8 to 14% depending on the extent of cyanoethylation. Feathers modified by cyanoethylation had good thermoplasticity and could be useful to develop various thermoplastics.

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► Feathers are abundant, inexpensive and renewable but are non-thermoplastic.
► Feather have to be chemically modified to make them thermoplastic.
► Cyanoethylation provides feathers with good thermoplasticity.
► Cyanoethylated feathers could be used to develop thermoplastic products.
► Feather biothermoplastics can replace synthetic polymers and benefit environment.