Collagen is a protein known for its high tensile strength, and because of this property, collagen will be used as a reinforcement to a vegetable oil polymer for the purpose of producing high strength bio-based composites.  A salt and pepsin digestion method was employed in the extraction and purification of collagen from a bovine source, and the purity of the extracted collagen was determined. In addition, various specific sequences similar to triple-helical type I collagen will be synthesized via solid phase peptide synthesis to mimic the native collagen structure. Three helices will be synthesized and purified, and this will be followed by the equilibration of these peptides to form the proper collagen-like structure.  A circular dichroism (CD) spectrometer will also be used to determine the secondary structures and the thermal stabilities of both the synthesized collagen and the natural, purified collagen. These two sets of CD data will be compared to determine if the synthesized collagen possesses the characteristic triple helical structure.  Once the peptides and protein samples are characterized, they will be incorporated into the polymer and tested for their mechanical properties.  Progress made toward these research goals will be reported.

Biobased composites produced from vegetable oil polymers and collagen

247th National Meeting (2014)

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