20.500.12556/DKUM-96063 Upcycling wool and feather waste into nanofibers via eco-friendly hydrothermally assisted isolation of keratin a promising approach to tunable functionalities Hydrothermal degradation processes are a particularly promising eco-friendly approach to keratin isolation from biomass. They, however, result in products with a broad molecular weight distribution, which can be particularly unfavorable for fiber production. In this study, we aimed to determine whether hydrothermally degraded feather and wool waste is suitable to produce nanofibers that retain the key functional properties of keratin, such as antioxidant activity and biocompatibility. Keratin/PEO blends were used for needleless electrospinning of nanofibers cross-linked with two different cross-linkers, ethylene glycol diglycidyl ether (EGDE) and pentaerythritol triacrylate (PETA), to improve their stability to water. The surface tension, pH, turbidity, zeta potential, and protein concentration of the keratin extract solutions were analyzed. The morphology of the produced nanofibers was analyzed using a scanning electron microscope, the surface chemical structure by attenuated total reflection–Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR analysis), and the cross-linking success by water contact angle measurements. The antioxidant capacity and the biocompatibility of the nanofiber mats with skin cells were investigated using a 2,2′-azinobis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) assay and the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) vitality test, respectively. The results showed that despite the unfavorable starting materials with a wide molecular mass range from 3 to 15 kDa and low average molecular weights keratin products obtained by a green hydrothermal extraction process can be used to produce nanofibers with excellent antioxidant properties and skin cell biocompatibility. The cross-linking of the nanofibers resulted in hydrophobic nanofiber surfaces; however, it impaired their biocompatibility with skin cells compared to noncross-linked nanofibers. waste chicken feathers wool keratin nanofibers greene xtraction process subcritical water hydrothermal isolation process electrospinning cross-linking odpadno piščančje perje volna keratinska nanovlakna postopek zelene ekstrakcije voda pod kritično mejo postopek hidrotermalne izolacije elektro-predenje zamreženje true false true ACS Publications Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsapm.5c03027 Članek v reviji 2025-11-28 13:38:01 2025-11-28 13:38:02 2025-11-29 03:15:07 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2025 0 0 str. 14793-14803 iss. 21 Vol. 7 October 2025 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 2025-08-19 2025-10-03 2025-11-14 677.017:620.3 257416195 10.1021/acsapm.5c03027 2637-6105 upcycling-wool-and-feather-waste-into-nanofibers-via-eco-friendly-hydrothermally-assisted-isolation-of-keratin.pdf upcycling-wool-and-feather-waste-into-nanofibers-via-eco-friendly-hydrothermally-assisted-isolation-of-keratin.pdf 1 9D583CF1F773CF85674C9EB8E5B1C1C0 9e1730b496ede1cd73ecfa0ce988a9df7f6092ef1f377faa6cc9a61890be46d9 695511f2-cc57-11f0-b6ed-00155d000105 https://dk.um.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=200949 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsapm.5c03027 0 6fb7664d-cc57-11f0-b6ed-00155d000105 https://dk.um.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=200950 Fakulteta za strojništvo 0 0 0