Make Filter Paper from Feathers: Expert Advice Needed

[totoykabute]

feathers have the same properties as wool.. i am planning to make filter paper out of feathers but i have no idea of what process to be used.. kraft pulping process are for woods.. how about nonwood?.. anyone who are expert in pulping process can help me.. thanks!

 

[chemisttree]

I would practice making your filters from wool first, specifically wool linters. Feathers are mostly harvested from slaughterhouse operations and have a significant amount of blood in them. You will need to start off your process by steam cleaning them. After that you will have a fluffy pile of shafts and vanes. The shafts will behave differently than vanes in papermaking but will act as a reinforcement in a filter application. They are made up of a protein loosely described as ketatin. This protein is in the form of fibrils on the molecular scale just as wood is composed of fibrils on the macro scale. These fibrils are held together by a combination of disulfide linkages (from the cysteine amino acids) and hydrogen bonds from the aspartic and glutamic acids. The hydrogen bonds can be effectively disrupted by concentrated
acids or strong urea solutions. The disulfide linkages can be broken by treatment with a reducing or oxidizing agent. A mixture of urea and sodium sulfite can isolate a fraction from the feathers which can be recast into weak films under mildly oxidizing conditions. If the feathers are first oxidized under acidic peracid conditions (cold peracetic acid), you can solubilize the entire protein with subsequent alkaline treatment. From this solution can be isolated sulfur rich alpha-keratose and sulfur poor gamma-keratose although since keratins are named keratins due to their unusually high sulfur content, calling something sulfur-poor keratin (gamma-keratin) is a bit of a misnomer, reflecting the material's origins. These two fractions can be precipitated under different conditions and can be used in various clever ways as structural biomaterials or, I suppose, a filter.

My advice would be to forget about wood processing for paper and focus on the protein chemistry common in the wool industry and apply that knowledge to feathers with the understanding that feathers lack structural features commonly found in hair and wool such as cuticle.

 

[totoykabute]

ahmm.. we found some info in the net and they make a paper from feather by milling the feather, then macerating it by 10 grams of commercial glue and 500 ml water, and putting some ethanol.. that's how they pulp the feathers.. will it work for our filter paper?

 

[chemisttree]

No idea. Sounds like it's worth a try.