Gelation Behaviors and Mechanism of Silk Fibroin According to the Addition of Nitrate Salts.

Dong Su Im; Min Hee Kim; Young Il Yoon; Won Ho Park

Silk fibroin (SF) is a typical fibrous protein that is secreted by silkworms and spiders. It has been used in a variety of areas, and especially for tissue-engineering scaffolds, due to its sound processability, mechanical properties, biodegradability, and biocompatibility. With respect to gelation, the SF gelation time is long in aqueous solutions, so a novel approach is needed to shorten this time. The solubility of regenerated SF is sound in formic acid (FA), which is a carboxylic acid of the simplest structure. In this study, SF was dissolved in formic acid, and the addition of salts then induced a rapid gelation that accompanied a solution-color change. Based on the gelation behaviors of the SF solution according to different SF and salt concentrations, the gelation mechanism was investigated.

SILK fibroin; GELATION; COAGULATION; COLLOIDS; NITRATES

International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2016, Vol 17, Issue 10, p1697

1661-6596

Academic Journal

10.3390/ijms17101697