Repurposing human hair keratins into novel fibers based on interfacial polyelectrolyte complexation

Abstract

Millions of tonnes of human hair accumulate in landfills or are incinerated annually, contributing to environmental pollution. However, human hair contains keratins which is a valuable biomaterial as they are biocompatible, biodegradable and bioactive. In addition, as the keratins are of human origin, there is a lower risk of interspecies disease transmission compared to animal-derived biomaterials. Interfacial Polyelectrolyte Complexation (IPC) is a straightforward method to produce micrometer-sized fibers. However, no research has focused on the use of human hair keratins to produce IPC fibers.