Investigation of Morphology and Photocatalytic Activities of Electrospun Chicken Feather Keratin/PLA/TiO2/Clay Nanofibers

This research has focused on the fabrication of electro spun-keratin base composite nanofiber, in order to develop the organic dye removal filters. The filters were prepared from a keratin-base material, which was extracted from chicken feathers. A biodegradable polymer including Poly (lactic acid) was blended into keratin to improve fibre process-ability. Titanium dioxide (anatase) and clay (Na-montmorillonite) were mixed into the PLA/Keratin blended solution prior to fabrication into non-woven fibre using the electro-spinning process. The objective of this research was to study the effect of TiO2 and clay on the process-ability, the morphology, and the filter efficiency (methylene blue removal) of the fibres. SEM images showed the morphology of small PLA/Keratin/clay-base fibres. SEM-scan mapping EDX technique showed a good dispersion of keratin, clay and TiO2 along the fibres. XRD pattern also showed the existence of PLA, keratin and TiO2. But the peak of clay was not strong enough. However, the evidence of clay was clearly shown by SEM-EDX technique as reported above. The capability to remove organic dye (methylene blue) was investigated by using UV-Vis spectrophotometer technique. From all of our results, it can be concluded that PLA/Keratin/TiO2/clay is an effective filter for the removal of organic dye from wastewater.