Preparation of carrageenan fibers with extraction of Chondrus via wet spinning process.

Traditionally, the carrageenan fibers were prepared by process of extracting, drying, dissolving of carrageenan power and wet spinning process of fibers. However, in this study, carrageenan fibers were prepared by carrageenan solution directly from the extraction of Chondrus, without the steps of precipitation, and drying. The properties of carrageenan powder, spinning solution and carrageenan fibers were characterized with zeta potential, NMR, FTIR, dynamic light scattering (DLS), SEM, tensile testing and energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). The results showed that the Chondrus contained mainly iota-carrageenan. The extraction of Chondrus was a uniform liquid with good properties of a solution, which was suitable as a spinning solution. The so prepared carrageenan fibers possessed good morphology and tensile properties. The excellent tensile properties of the carrageenan fibers were attributed to the combination of sulfate ester in the carrageenan and barium ions in the coagulation and then form a three-dimensional network structure.