(2cp) Cross-Linked Chicken Feather Keratin and Thiolated Chitosan Based Hydrogel for the Detoxification of Patulin from Apple Juice

In the present work, we developed an environmentally friendly, cost-effective, non-toxic, and reusable biosorbent made of cross-linked chicken feather keratin and thiolated chitosan (CFKC) hydrogel for the detoxification of patulin from apple juice. The dithiol (S-S) bonding in the crosslinked hydrogel readily reacts with the patulin to convert into an oxidized form, eliminating its toxicity. Batch mode adsorption experiments were carried out to investigate the adsorption capacity of CFKC for patulin at various pH, temperature, contact time, and concentration. The as-developed CFKC hydrogel adsorbed 98.5% of patulin from the juice simulator with a patulin concentration of 50 ppb in 180 min. Furthermore, the CFKC hydrogel did not affect the apple juice’s quality. The adsorption kinetics can be closely fitted with the intraparticle diffusion model, resulting in a monolayer chemisorption mechanism for patulin removal. Thus, the proposed biosorbent CFKC hydrogel demonstrated to be an effective and sustainable biosorbent for removing patulin from contaminated apple juice.