Epoxidized PVA cross-linked with SRM-derived peptides for tackifiers

The hypothesis of this research is that epoxidized PVA can cross-link with the peptides derived from SRM. And the cross-linked products show comparable binding strength and water holding capacity to the commercial tackifier. Through the functional groups characterization on epoxy groups, amino groups and carboxylic groups, it was found that stable epoxidized PVA solution can be obtained from the PVA epoxidation which can effectively consume the amino groups of the SRM-derived peptides through cross-linking. The number of carboxylic groups in the peptides was not affected by the reaction. The resulted products show higher binding strength than the unmodified peptides which can be comparable to the commercial tackifier. Other properties were also defined to show the differences caused by the cross-linking. Unmodified PVA was used as a control to show the low reaction rate between peptides and PVA. The methods for each experiment can be found in the published paper.