Acetic acid

The chemicals used in the current study are as follows: Poly(vinyl alcohol), PVA (MW = 85–124 kDa, DH = 86 to 89%), and Acetic acid (purity ≥ 99.5%) were purchased from s.d.fine Chemicals Ltd., Mumbai, India. Chitosan, CS (MW = 200 kDa; N-deacetylation degree 75–85%) and silver nanopowder (purity ≥ 99.5%, particle size < 150 nm) were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich Chemicals, St. Louis, MO, USA. Rectified ethanol (95.6 vol.%) from Godavari Biorefineries, Karnataka, India. Chemicals purchased were used without further purifications as they are reagent-grade chemicals.

Kenaf fiber was extracted from the kenaf tree (cultivated traditionally by farmers for making ropes to tie piles of rice after harvest for storage) collected in Issakaha village, from the Korhogo region, Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast). All the plant experiments were in compliance with relevant institutional, national and international guidelines and legislation. Freshly flayed hides was purchased from the local slaughterhouse, Chennai, India. Raw cowhide trimming wastes were collected from the leather processing unit at CSIR-Central Leather Research Institute, Chennai, India. Hide powder was prepared from raw cowhide trimming wastes and were treated using the conventional process to remove the unwanted hair and flesh based on our previous report^{37 (link)}. All chemicals were of analytical grade and were used without any further purification. Chemicals used were sodium hydroxide (SD Fine Chem Limited, 98%), sodium chlorite (LOBA Chemie, 80%), sodium sulfite anhydrous (EMPARTA, 98%), acetic acid (SRL, 99.9%), acetone (SD Fine Chem Limited), citric acid, titanium (IV) isopropoxide (Sigma Aldrich, 97%), iron (II) sulphate (SD Fine Chem Limited, 99%), iron (III) sulphate (SD Fine Chem Limited, 75%), ammonia (Rankem), isopropanol (Qaligens, 70%), ethanol (Hayman, 100%) and nitric acid (SD Fine Chem Limited, 69–72%).