Poultry feathers are inevitably generated as coproducts but are a renewable, biodegradable and inexpensive source for proteins. Attempts to utilize feathers for industrial applications have mostly focused on using the feathers as reinforcement for composites. Recently, attempts have been made to chemically modify the feathers and develop thermoplastics from the modified feathers. Chemical modifications will increase the cost and may also decrease the biodegradability of the feathers. In this research, a simple alkaline hydrolysis was used to reduce the molecular weights of the feather proteins and develop thermoplastics. Compression molded films developed from hydrolyzed feathers had tensile strength of 5.9 MPa and elongation of 31.7%. Feather films were crosslinked with citric acid to improve the tensile properties and water stability.

Developing thermoplastic films from poultry feathers by alkaline hydrolysis

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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