Effect of Silk Sericin Content on the Electrospun Silk Nanofibrous Membrane Property

Abstract

Aims: Research of the effect of silk sericin content on the morphology and structure of electrospun silk nanofibrous membrane. Background: Silk sericin has significant influence on the silk solution and regenerated silk-based materials property, while few reports were found to investigate. Objective: We'll know the effect of silk sericin content on the morphology and structure of electrospun silk nanofibrous membrane. Methods: Four degumming conditions (none degumming, boiling water degumming, 0.05 % Na2CO3 degumming, 0.5 % Na2CO3 degumming) were carried out a systematic investigation in terms of silk sericin content after degumming, regenerated silk nanofibrous membrane morphology (SEM) and structure property (FTIR, XRD). Result: The results show that 0.5 % Na2CO3 degumming results poor spinnability. The solution derives from none degumming and boiling water degumming present high viscosity, leading to a hard silk nanofiber fabrication process. The silk nanofiber from the 0.05 % Na2CO3 degumming shows easier fabrication process and better nanofiber morphology. Conclusion: We successfully prepared silk nanofiber membrane with different sericin content. The sericin content significantly affects the spinnability and subsequent nanofiber morphology. Higher sericin content leads to poor solution spinnability and numerous droplets on resulting nanofiber membrane. Additionally, the sericin can both existence of structural silk I and silk II, which will favor to the increase of mechanical property.