Morphological and structural investigation of wool-derived keratin nanofibres crosslinked by thermal treatment

Mats of wool-derived keratin nanofibre have been prepared by electrospinning solutions of keratin in formic acid at 20 and 15 wt.%, and obtaining nanofibres with mean diameter of about 400 and 250 nm, respectively. These mats can find applications in tissue engineering (they can mimic the native extracellular matrix) and in wastewater treatment (they can trap small particles and adsorb heavy-metals). A drawback to overcome is their solubility in water. A stabilization method, based on a thermal treatment alternative to the use of formaldehyde, is proposed. The solubility test in the dithiothreitol/urea extraction buffer, the amino acid composition analysis and studies on keratin secondary structures suggest that the improved stability in water of thermally treated mats can be ascribed to the formation of amide bonds between acid and basic groups of some amino acid side chains.