Chitosan/Collagen Hydrolysate Based Films Obtained from Hide Trimming Wastes Reinforced with Chitosan Nanoparticles

One of the long-standing problems of the leather manufacturing industry is that tons of solid leather waste generated during production meet environmental standards. Among all these solid wastes, untanned trimming wastes are of primary interest because of their relative collagen content, and therefore, in this research, hide trimming wastes from tanneries were used to prepare biodegradable films. The SDS-PAGE results suggested that obtained collagen hydrolysate (CH) was in its natural molecular form. Chitosan nanoparticles (CSNPs) were synthesized by ionotropic gelation technique with chitosan (CS) and tripolyphosphate anions and used in the preparation of CS/CH/CSNPs films containing different concentrations of CSNPs. The incorporation of CSNPs in CS/CH films has positively improved the films' remarkable physical properties. The DSC result showed that CS/CH films incorporated with CSNPs had higher glass transition and melting temperature. As a result, it was determined that CS/CH/CSNPs nanocomposite films have a high potential in biodegradable film systems.