On the Phase Inversion Phenomenon in a Feather Keratin/Nylon 6 Blend as Deduced from Atomic Force Microscopy

Chicken feathers, the most abundant resources of keratin biopolymers, are available as a waste by-product from poultry-processing plants, reaching millions of tons annually throughout the world and there is an ever-increasing demand for developing suitable methods for their disposal. Blending Feather Keratin with other synthetic polymers has been proposed by some researchers as a suitable method to solve the problem. In this work, the surface structure and topographical properties of various compositions of feather keratin/nylon6 (FK/NY6) blends were investigated using a tapping mode atomic force microscopy (TMAFM). The analysis of the TMAFM phase images revealed that the blends surfaces were composed of phase-separated domain structures, suggesting that the NY6 and FK lacked favorable interactions to ensure molecular miscibility. The topographical and roughness analysis of the TMAFM height images showed that the FK-rich blends had coarser surfaces than NY6-rich ones, possibly due to the heterogeneous nature of the FK chemical structure. The amplitude-phase-distance (APD) measurements led to the recognition of a phase inversion in the FK/NY6 40/60 blend. Occurrence of the phase inversion phenomenon can be interpreted as coming from the significant difference between the molecular weights (Mw) of the NY6 and FK components. This could cause the low molecular weight FK to act as a lubricant, reducing the stress imposed on the NY6 component during the blends preparation process and make an imbalance between breakup and coalescence of the droplets

کلیدواژه ها:

Feather keratin ، Nylon 6 ، TMAFM ، Phase inversion