Comparison of different tanning agents on the stabilization of collagen via differential scanning calorimetry

Leather is composed of a three-dimensional weave of collagen fiber bundles. Collagen is a fibrous protein well organized in the formation of skin as building blocks. Leather production involves serial operations where the tanning plays the major role in improving the durability of leather products by stabilizing the triple helical structure of collagen matrix. In the leather-making industry, different tanning agents are used to produce different kind of leather goods. These tanning agents have varied efficiency on the stabilization of collagen. In this study, thermal stability of the leathers tanned with most commonly used tanning agents was evaluated by conventional shrinking test (CST) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) methods. The results showed that the thermal stability of leathers varied by the type of tanning agent which were in accordance with theoretical approaches. A distinct correlation was also observed between CST and DSC results of the tanned leathers.