Green bionanocomposites from renewable resources

5^th World Congress on Smart and Emerging Materials

April 19-20, 2018 Dubai, UAE

Aman Ullah, Manpreet Kaur and Muhammad Arshad

University of Alberta, Canada

Accepted Abstracts: J Material Sci Eng

Abstract :

Biodegradability and renewability has led renewed interest in protein based films reinforced with nanoparticles. Bionanocomposites have gained attention because of their enhanced material properties with the aid of nanoreinforcements. The effects of two different nanoparticles, montmorillonite (MMT) and cellulose nano-crystals (CNCs), at different loading contents (0%, 1%, 3%, 5% and 10%) were studied as a reinforcement material in modified chicken feather keratin. Compression molding was employed to prepare bionanocomposites films thermo-plastically. The effect of CNC and MMT addition, their disposition and impact on the final material properties was investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA), tensile testing and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). The morphology of in situ modified keratin-based nano-composites and the extent of nanoparticle dispersion was observed through scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and wideangle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), respectively. The molecular level interactions of CNCâ��s and MMTâ��s with keratin biopolymer were investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) techniques. Results indicated improved thermal stability and shift in glass transition temperature for both nano-reinforced bio-composites. Tensile strength was enhanced significantly with the addition of MMT; however, increased percent elongation was observed in case of CNC-reinforced biomaterials. The changes in the chemical bonding of keratin biopolymer reinforced with MMT/ CNC compared to neat keratin biopolymer were observed by XPS spectra. These results suggest that high performance bionanomaterials can be developed from feather keratin through in situ dispersion of MMT and CNC nanoparticles, followed by compression molding. References 1. Echeverr�­a et al. (2014) Nanocomposites films based on soy proteins and montmorillonite processed by casting. J. Membr. Sci.; 449: 15-26. 2. Klemm et al. (2011) Nanocelluloses: A New Family of Nature-Based Materials Angew. Chem., Int. Ed.; 50(24): 5438-5466. Recent Publications 1. Kaur M, Arshad M, Ullah A (2018) In situ Nano-reinforced Green Bionanomaterials from Natural Keratin and Montmorillonite (MMT)/Cellulose Nano-crystals (CNC). ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng.; 6(2): 1977â��1987. 2. Arshad M, Kaur M, Ullah A (2016) Green Biocomposites from Nanoengineered Hybrid Natural Fiber and Biopolymer. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering; 4(3): 1785-1793.

Biography :

Aman Ullah received his PhD in Chemical Sciences and Technologies in 2010 at the University of Genova, Italy by working together at Southern Methodist University, USA. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow before accepting an Assistant Professor position at the University of Alberta. He has published more than 40 papers in reputed journals and three patents/patent applications. His research is focused on the development of biochemicals, biopolymers/biomaterials from lipids and other renewable resources.
Email:ullah2@ualberta.ca