"Cotton Without Land" - Chicken Feather Fiber

　　 A new report on the development and application of low carbon economy and chicken feather fiber has attracted wide attention of the delegates at the International Conference on functional textile new materials and low carbon economy, jointly organized by the Chinese Academy of textile science and Beijing Textile Engineering Society in Changzhou, Jiangsu recently.

In response to the international trend of low carbon economy and green environment, combined with abundant chicken feather resources in China, the development and utilization of chicken feather fiber has become a new hot spot for researchers.

The development and application of feather, especially feather down, such as duck down and goose down, has been widely applied to clothing, home textiles and other fields in China. However, the development and application of poultry feather, especially the development of chicken feather fiber, is still in the initial stage of research and development in China.

According to Zhu Baoyu, vice president of the northwest Textile Technology Institute (now Xi'an Polytechnic University), the development of chicken feather fiber is a research field related to new energy development technology, full utilization of resources and environmental protection.

In recent years, the scale of chicken raising in China has increased rapidly, and the output of chicken feather is considerable. However, due to the problem of chicken feather collection in China, a large part of chicken feather is treated as garbage. According to Zhu Baoyu, at present, the development and application of chicken feather fiber has been involved in national defense, clothing and clothing. Poultry feather contains more than 85% keratin, and is rich in 18 amino acids and a variety of mineral elements. It is a valuable natural resource. It can be called "cotton without land" and its thermal insulation performance is far more than cotton. But at present, it has not been well utilized, resulting in serious waste and environmental pollution.

Zhu Baoyu told reporters that in fact, the development of chicken feather fiber has a very good development prospect. Carbonized chicken feather fibers can be used as hydrogen storage materials. Hydrogen is the preferred fuel for future vehicles, and the biggest obstacle to the realization of hydrogen energy economy is hydrogen production and storage. In order to solve the problem of hydrogen storage, the most important thing is to find a cheap and environment-friendly material that can act as hydrogen adsorbent in fuel cells. Foreign scientists have studied various kinds of nanostructured materials but have no results. The research and development of carbonized chicken feather fibers in the United States is expected to solve this problem. Experiments show that storing hydrogen with carbonized chicken feather fiber will greatly improve the existing hydrogen storage technology, which can absorb even more hydrogen than carbon nanotubes and hydrogen storage alloys. It may overcome the obstacles existing in the use of hydrogen materials in automobiles, trucks and other machinery, so that hydrogen energy economy can be truly realized. In particular, carbonized chicken feather storage hydrogen is green and environmental friendly, and protein natural fiber can be degraded.

Pheasant feather can be used as a new generation of bulletproof vest. The pheasant feathers are unique and of high value. They can make high-grade robe, satin, brocade and silk garments, and also make feather fans, feather paintings, toys and crafts. In recent years, the British Ministry of defense has made the pheasant feather the most effective bulletproof vest. This new bulletproof vest made of pheasant feather is lighter and cheaper than the bulletproof vest made by Kevlar.

According to Zhu Baoyu, chicken feather is also used to make high-grade air filter paper. At present, chicken feather fibers are used to replace some wood pulp components in paper products. Chicken feather fiber can play a supporting role in the framework. The filter paper and decorative paper products developed with chicken feather fiber have begun commercial application. In the paper containing chicken feather fiber, chicken feather fiber accounted for 51%, wood pulp accounted for 49%, and environmental protection advantages were self-evident. According to the measurement, the air filter paper made from mixed materials of chicken feather fiber and wood pulp can achieve 5 microns thick. The hyper fine filtration of chicken feather fiber filter paper can block all kinds of allergen (dust) in the air on filter paper, reduce the incidence of air pollution syndrome, and is more suitable for family and office use. In addition, diaper cloth can be made from chicken feather paper. Its weight is 20% lighter than that of ordinary diapers, but its adsorption capacity is twice as high.

In addition, the development of light and dense high-strength synthetic materials with chicken feather fiber can be used for office equipment, automobile interior decorations, hull outboard, sleeper facilities of railway passenger cars, etc. It is reported that American materials experts are experimenting with waste chicken feather making better quality computers, making chicken feather into high-speed integrated circuit boards. The current flow through this new material is nearly twice as fast as that on silicon material, and the speed of computer processing information will be greatly improved.

Zhu Baoyu told reporters that the development of chicken feather protein fiber will become a new research direction. By rearranging the molecular structure of chicken feather fiber protein and using related technologies, we can produce different fineness of chicken feather protein fiber filament, short fiber and its products. At present, scientific research teams in American universities have developed clothes made of chicken feather woven fabrics, and fabrics made from chicken feather fibers are fluffy. The clothes made in summer are breathable, warm in winter, strong and hard to wear. At present, some textile institutions and research institutes in China are paying close attention to the development and research of chicken feather fiber.

Responding to the international trend of low carbon economy and green environmental protection, accelerating the research and development of new textile fibers and new technologies has become the goal of our scientific research workers. With the abundant chicken feather resources in China, the development and application of chicken feather fiber will have a bright future. At present, the scientific research personnel of the school of textiles and materials of Xi'an Polytechnic University have studied the modification of polyester fabric with the use of waste feather protein additives. By optimizing the production process and special technology, the moisture absorption properties of polyester fabrics have been significantly improved and improved. This indicates that our research on the adjuvant of chicken feather fiber finishing has successfully taken the first step.

Zhu Baoyu told reporters, "for the development and application of chicken feather, China's livestock industry research is relatively early and deeper. With the development of science and technology, the development of chicken feather fiber applied to the field of textile and clothing will be the future research direction of the scientific research field. We should increase the integration of production, research, research, agriculture, industry and trade of chicken feather fiber and carry out cross industry and cross field research and cooperation, which is a major step forward in speeding up the research and development of chicken feather fiber in China.