An eco-friendly material based on graft copolymer of gelatin extracted from leather solid waste for potential application in chemical sand-fixation

One chemical sand-fixing material based on graft copolymer of gelatin (G) extracted from leather solid wastes was studied in this work. G was extracted from leather solid wastes through the method of alkaline hydrolysis firstly, and then acrylamide (AM) and acrylic acid (AA) monomers were grafted onto the G to synthesis the graft copolymer (G-g-P(AM-co-AA)) by free-radical copolymerization. The graft copolymer was purified by solvent method, after that the purified G-g-P(AM-co-AA) was characterized by FTIR, TG–DTG and other analysis technology. The results indicated that both the adsorption peaks of gelatin’ amide bond and monomer existed in infrared spectrogram proved that the AM and AA monomers have grafted with G. The thermal stability of G was improved after reacted with AM and AA monomers, and the maximum decomposition temperature was about 380 °C. The G-g-P(AM-co-AA) has good storage stability, dilution stability and temperature resistance. And the product has excellent biodegradability, which reflected better environmental protection and safety property. The G-g-P(AM-co-AA) could be combined with sand particles, and formed a consolidation layer, which has a good water retention, anti-wind erosion and anti-water erosion. When the mass fraction was 3%, G-g-P (AM-co-AA) solution can meet the requirements of sand-fixation under conventional desert environment.