Abstract

Previous work from this laboratory has demonstrated that a collagen-TiO2 nanocomposite could be prepared via a sol-gel procedure. However, the shrinkage temperature produced by this kind of nanocomposite is low. In this experiment, the collagen-TiO2 nanocomposite was improved by adding glutaraldehyde and increasing the pH level. Results show that the optimum amount of glutaraldehyde is 6% (based on pickled pelt weight), and the optimal pH level for preparation is 3.5. These conditions raise the shrinkage temperature of the nanocomposite from 73.8°C to 82.2°C.

Scanning Electron Micrographs (SEM) images indicate that the collagen fibril has been wrapped with nanoparticles. Meanwhile, results from Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) suggest that nano-TiO2 with a particle size of 40nm can be formed in-situ in the collagen. Further experiments demonstrated that the introduction of nanoparticles endows the nanocomposite with antibacterial activity.