The effect of water on the glass transition of human hair

F. J. Wortmann, M. Stapels, R. Elliott, L. Chandra

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    The glass transition of human hair and its dependence on water content were determined by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The relationship between the data is suitably described by the Fox equation, yielding for human hair a glass transition temperature of Tg = 144°C, which is substantially lower than that for wool (174°C). This effect is attributed to a higher fraction of hydrophobic proteins in the matrix of human hair, which acts as an internal plasticizer. The applicability of the Fox equation for hair as well as for wool implies that water is homogeneously distributed in α-keratins, despite their complex morphological, semicrystalline structure. To investigate this aspect, hair was rendered amorphous by thermal denaturation. For the amorphous hair neither the water content nor Tg were changed compared to the native state. These results provide strong support for the theory of a quasi-homogeneous distribution of water within α-keratins. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)371-375
    Number of pages4
    JournalBiopolymers
    Volume81
    Issue number5
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 5 Apr 2006

    Keywords

    • Differential scanning calorimetry
    • Fox equation
    • Glass transition
    • Human hair
    • Water content

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