Philipp Stossel, a 28-year-old PhD student from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ), was able to spin the fibres into a yarn from which textiles can be manufactured.
Gelatine consists chiefly of collagen, a main component of skin, bone and tendons. Large quantities of collagen are found in slaughterhouse waste and can be easily made into gelatine.
In his experiments, Stossel noticed that when he added an organic solvent (isopropyl) to a heated, aqueous gelatine solution, the protein precipitated at the bottom of the vessel.
A refined method replaced the pipette with several syringe drivers in a parallel arrangement. Using an even application of pressure, the syringes push out fine endless filaments, which are guided over two Teflon-coated rolls.
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The rolls are kept constantly moist in an ethanol bath; this prevents the filaments from sticking together and allows them to harden quickly before they are rolled onto a conveyor belt.
Using the spinning machine he developed, Stossel was able to produce 200 metres of filaments a minute. He then twisted around 1,000 individual filaments into a yarn with a hand spindle and had a glove knitted from the yarn as a showpiece.
With his first laboratory spinning machines, the fibre thickness was 100 micrometres, Stossel said. That was too thick for yarn production.
Whereas natural wool fibres have tiny scales, the surface of the gelatine fibres is smooth.
"As a result, they have an attractive luster," Stossel said.
Stossel is convinced that he is very close to his ultimate goal: making a biopolymer fibre from a waste product.
The research was published in the journal Biomacromolecules.