Browsing by Author "Bernal, Matias Joaquin Penayo"
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- Development of sustainable processes for leather surface and structure defects minimizationPublication . Bernal, Matias Joaquin Penayo; Barreiro, M.F.; Santamaria-Echart, Arantzazu; Chávez, Juan Daniel RivaldiIn pursuit of a greener future, the European Union and the United Nations encourage industries to renew their practices by adopting new sustainability principles and circular economy strategies. The waste produced by the leather industry takes part in this initiative by proposing a sustainable approach to minimizing leather’s superficial and structural defects. In this context, the objective of this work aims to minimize structural and superficial defects of discarded leather by employing leather hydrolysate and commercial fillers (nanoclay particles, expandable and glass microspheres) and employing the combination of additives that proves more effective in improving the leather’s mechanical properties. The reduction of superficial defects was achieved by combining 0.2%, 0.7% and 4.0% of expandable microspheres, glass microspheres, and nanoclay particles, respectively, and 20.0% polyurethane binder with each one of the fillers. However, the most effective additive was the addition of 25.0% leather hydrolysate and 10.0% transglutaminase (mTG), resulting in lighter, smoother, and more elastic leather without a significant dimensional variance. The effect of the former additive’s concentration over the leather’s mechanical properties was analyzed with a rotational central composite design 22 with 3 central points, defining 15.0 and 45.0% (OHW) leather hydrolysate, and 5.0 and 15.0% (OLW) mTG as boundary values. The ANOVA revealed that in the studied region, a significant effect of the concentration of mTG on the elongation percentage of leather. In contrast, the leather hydrolysate demonstrated a weak, yet significant, influence on the tensile strength. No significant effect of the additives on Young’s modulus was found. The mathematical model generated to estimate the elongation percentage values was validated, predicting a value close to the one obtained from the experimental procedure. Overall, this work demonstrated the applicability of leather hydrolysate in the minimization of leather defects.