Dear community members,
I would like to dissolve eggshell membrane to create a solution for electrospinning.
I have purchased eggshell membrane and from searching some literature I have seen that the most common method is to dissolve it in 1.25 M aqueous 3-mercaptopropionic acid 1.25 M in the presence of 10% acetic acid at 90C for 12 hours.
However, although I have tried even more concentrated solutions or longer times I am unable to dissolve the eggshell membrane.
Can anyone give me some helpful advice?
Thank you very much !!!
Enric
Dear colleague,
I have the protein in powder and I would like to dissolve it into a solution. So, I will be able to electrospinning it.
Do you have any technique or idea?
Thank you,
Enric
Dear Enric
I have no direct experience in this field, so my remarks are only based on 35 years of research on poultry and eggs.
First of all: the (industrial) procedure of collecting and drying the egg membrane may have changed the properties of the protein rich material, so methods working with fresh membranes do not work on this dried material.
Did you already try elevated temperatures and methods like ultrasonic agitation?
More rigorous methods like proteases might be detrimental for the rest of your procedure, but a small test might indicate that.
(Very) old standard textbooks like Romanov&Romanov "The Avian Egg" (1939) may contain useful information from works done in the pre WW II period. People had a lot of time to do research back then and the basic data may still be valuable. Good luck
Kees
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