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Increasing Functionality of Fish Leather by Chemical Surface Modifications.
Achiad Zilberfarb1, Gali Cohen1, Elizabeth Amir1
1Department of Polymer Materials Engineering, Shenkar College of Engineering and Design, Anna Frank 12, Ramat Gan 5252626, Israel.
Polymers
|October 14, 2023
Summary
Fish skin, an environmental pollutant, can be transformed into valuable leather. Novel finishing treatments create hydrophobic, oil-repellent, and conductive salmon leather for diverse applications.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Surface Chemistry
- Sustainable Materials
Background:
- Fish skin is a significant environmental pollutant and underutilized by-product of the fishing industry.
- Limited research exists on finishing procedures for fish leather compared to traditional cattle leather.
- Developing value-added applications for fish skin aligns with circular economy principles.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop novel functional surface finishing treatments for chromium (CL)- and vegetable (VL)-tanned salmon leather.
- To impart hydrophobic, oil-repellent, and electro-conductive properties to fish leather.
- To explore the potential of treated fish leather for clothing and biomedical applications.
Main Methods:
- Hydrophobic coating achieved by grafting 10-undecenoylchloride (UC) onto leather hydroxyl groups via esterification.
- Enhanced hydrophobicity and oil repellency using perfluorodecanethiol (PFDT) via thiol-ene click chemistry and fluorinated silica nanoparticles (FSN)/PVDF-HFP.
- Electro-conductive coating developed by in situ polymerization of polyaniline (PANI).
Main Results:
- Successfully created hydrophobic and oil-repellent surfaces on salmon leather.
- Achieved significant reduction in surface resistivity from 11.4 (Log Ω/sq) for untreated leather to 5.2 (Log Ω/sq) for PANI-treated leather, indicating electro-conductivity.
- Demonstrated the feasibility of multifunctional surface modifications on fish leather.
Conclusions:
- Functional surface finishing treatments can transform fish skin by-products into high-value materials.
- The developed hydrophobic, oil-repellent, and conductive fish leather shows promise for advanced applications.
- This research contributes to sustainable utilization of fishery waste and innovation in material science.
