Creation of High-impact-resistant Bioresin from Wool Fabric and its Reversible Resinification

Wool is widely used in the apparel industry, and recycling wool will be of great value to this and other sectors in the future. The applications of keratin-derived fibers from wool and chicken feathers as fiber reinforcement for polymers and polymer film have been actively researched. Herein, we tried to prepare a wool resin from woven wool fabric with/without descaling treatment and pulverization(powdering) by hot-pressing at 150–180 °C under 60 MPa. The resin prepared from hot-pressed small powder (Diameter is <32 µm) with the descaling treatment reached the three-point bending strength (140 MPa) and bending modulus (6.7 GPa). Without the descaling treatment, the powder-derived resin exhibited less bending strength (105 MPa). For preparing a resin directly from the woven wool fabric without descaling treatment or pulverization, the resin could not be obtained. However, woven wool fabric with only descaling treatment could be resinified because the surface scale, which contains a high amount of cystine, was removed during the descaling treatment. This resin has superior bending strength (104 MPa) and bending modulus (4.8 GPa) to general-purpose resin. Moreover, the maximum Izod impact value of this fabric-derived resin achieved 457 J/m due to the ability to reversibly transform back into a woven wool fabric under applied stress.