Novel Protein Fibers from Wheat Gluten

Protein fibers with mechanical properties similar to those of wool and better than those of soyprotein and zein fibers have been produced from 100% wheat gluten. Wheat gluten is a low cost, abundantly available, and renewable resource suitable for fiber production. A simple production method has been developed to obtain high-quality wheat gluten fibers, and the structure and properties of the fibers have been studied. Wheat gluten fibers have breaking tenacity of about 115 MPa, breaking elongation of 23%, and a Young's modulus of 5 GPa, similar to those of wool. Wheat gluten fibers have better tensile properties than soyprotein- and casein-based biomaterials. In addition, the wheat gluten fibers have resistance similar to that of PLA fibers to water in weak alkaline and slightly lower resistance in weak acidic conditions at high temperatures.