Pyura chilensis is a tunicate that can be found all along the Chilean coasts. In 2016, Pyura chilensis has been extracted at a rate of 2120 tons monthly. Its reddish internal organs are highly appreciated and are part of the Chilean sea food diet. The external protective layer, usually referred to as tunic, is a waste of that economic activity and is currently not being valorized. These tunic wastes are currently generating environmental issues in the south of Chile where tons of tunics are being accumulated each year in the town of Carelmapu. Cellulose extracted from tunics has been reported to be of excellent quality. It possesses high purity, high crystallinity as well as good mechanical and thermal properties. Another attractive feature of tunics is that the cellulose it contains is naturally associated to proteins and so by applying controlled protein-functionalized cellulose fibrils could be potentially obtained. The present work reports the extraction of protein-functionalized cellulose fibrils using a chemical method. The obtained portein-functionalized and pure cellulose fibrils were subsequently characterized using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), Raman and X-ray photoelectron (XPS) spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Figures 1(a) and 1(b) report cellulose nanopaper membranes that were fabricated using protein-functionalized and pure cellulose fibrils, respectively. Cellulose nanopapers were fabricated using a vacuum filtration and hot-pressing method. The membranes were subsequently characterized by FTIR and XPS spectroscopy, XRD, SEM, streaming zeta potential, tensile testing and TGA. Figure 2 reports streaming zeta potential measurements suggesting that, at low pH, protein-functionalized cellulose nanopapers possess highly negative surface charges.

Protein-functionalized cellulose fibrils and nanopapers derived from tunic wastes

2019 Spring National Meeting

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