US 11,530,300 B2 · Residual soy flour sugars as crosslinkers for enhancing mechanical performance of protein fibers

Abstract

Disclosed is a method of crosslinking protein fibers, including wool fibers, by (i) providing a crosslinking agent including an oxidized sugar mixture having a plurality of different oxidized sugars of different molecular lengths and having at least two aldehyde groups (e.g., oxidized soy flour sugars); and (ii) infiltrating a plurality of non-crosslinked protein fibers with the crosslinking agent under conditions effective to cause protein molecules contained in the non-crosslinked protein fibers to become crosslinked. This method yields a population of crosslinked protein fibers, where the protein molecules of the non-crosslinked protein fibers include amine groups that react with the aldehyde groups of the oxidized sugars to achieve the crosslinking of the protein molecules to yield the crosslinked protein fibers.

Claims23

Dependent claims

A method of crosslinking keratin-containing fibers, said method comprising:

providing a crosslinking agent comprising an oxidized sugar mixture comprising a plurality of different oxidized sugars having at least two aldehyde groups, wherein the sugars are selected from the group consisting of monosaccharides, disaccharides, trisaccharides, and tetrasaccharides;
and
infiltrating a plurality of keratin-containing fibers with the crosslinking agent under conditions effective to cause protein molecules contained in the keratin-containing fibers to become crosslinked, thereby yielding a population of crosslinked keratin-containing fibers,
wherein the protein molecules of the keratin-containing fibers comprise amine groups that react with the at least two aldehyde groups of the oxidized sugars to achieve the crosslinking of the protein molecules to yield the crosslinked keratin-containing fibers.

1 more element

A method of making a crosslinking formulation for crosslinking keratin-containing fibers, said method comprising the steps of:

providing a mixture of non-oxidized sugar molecules comprising a plurality of different sugars;
and
reacting the non-oxidized sugar molecules with an oxidizing agent comprising sodium periodate (NaIO4) to cause oxidation of the non-oxidized sugar molecules to yield a crosslinking formulation comprising an oxidized sugar mixture comprising a plurality of different oxidized sugars having at least two aldehyde groups,
wherein the sugars are selected from the group consisting of monosaccharides, disaccharides, trisaccharides, and tetrasaccharides, and
wherein said mixture of oxidized sugars are crosslinking agents effective to react with amine groups of protein molecules contained in non-crosslinked keratin-containing fibers to yield a population of crosslinked keratin-containing fibers.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Residual soy flour sugars as crosslinkers for enhancing mechanical performance of protein fibers

Life of this patent

Residual soy flour sugars as crosslinkers for enhancing mechanical performance of protein fibers

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims23