Lixia Gao¹, Sheng Shi^1,2,*, Wensheng Hou¹, Shuhua Wang¹, Zhifeng Yan¹, Chao Ge¹

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.8, No.6, pp. 703-713, 2020, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2020.09055

Abstract In this study, waste cotton fabric was used as cellulose raw material and pretreated in aqueous NaOH/urea solution system to investigate the effect of NaOH/urea pretreatment solution on the hydrolysis of cotton fiber. The cotton fiber was pretreated with different conditions of aqueous NaOH/urea solution, and the pretreated cotton fiber was hydrolyzed under the same conditions as the original cotton fiber. The results of characterization analysis showed that water retention value of pretreated cotton fiber was higher than that of unpretreated sample. Moreover, the cotton fiber presented both a convoluted structure and a coarser surface, XRD results suggested that the… More >

Monica Puccini^*1, Eleonora Stefanelli¹, Maurizia Seggiani¹, Elena Balestri², Sandra Vitolo¹

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.5, Suppl.1, pp. 117-123, 2017, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2017.634138

Abstract In this study, blends of low-density polyethylene (PE) containing 20 wt% of hydrolyzed collagen (HC) from the leather industry were processed by the film blowing technique. A biodegradation study of these innovative materials was performed by two different biodegradation tests, one in terrestrial environment, the other one under aquatic conditions. Degradation rates were determined for both systems and an environmental degradability parameter was calculated. The results proved the positive influence of hydrolyzed collagen on degradation of polyethylene, but also showed a relatively low biological degradability of PE/HC blends under the applied test conditions. More >