NANOFIBROUS MAT PRODUCTION FROM SILK FIBROIN SOLUTION PREPARED IN A ONESTEP


Özdemir T., Aras Gül C., Karaca E.

14th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGINEERING & NATURAL SCIENCES, Sivas, Turkey, 18 - 19 July 2022, pp.2-7

  • Publication Type: Conference Paper / Full Text
  • City: Sivas
  • Country: Turkey
  • Page Numbers: pp.2-7
  • Bursa Uludag University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

Silk consists of filaments of the cocoon spun by the domestic silkworm, Bombyx Mori. It

consists of fibroin macromolecule, which provides excellent biocompatibility and mechanical

properties, as well as biodegradability. Depending on its application area, fibroin can be used

as a gel, powder, fiber, or 3D scaffold. Recently, it has been found that fibroin-based

electrospinning nanofiber structures have high potential usage in the field of tissue

engineering and regenerative medicine. Some research is conducted about using fibroin-based

nanofibrous surfaces in the biomedical field, such as tissue supports that can replace with

natural tissues, in medical prosthesis (artificial blood vessel, artificial organ), controlled drug

release, and wound dressing. The ideal solvent systems for the production of fibroin

electrospun nanofiber surfaces are still being investigated. Aqueous or organic salt-containing

systems that include calcium/chloride/water (Ajisawa method), lithium bromide/ethanol, lithium

bromide/ethanol/water, and calcium nitrate/methanol/water are the most common solvent systems

used. However, these solvent systems have various disadvantages such as long processing

steps and the need for additional processing steps to remove the salt used in the solvent

systems. In this study, an electrospinning solution of fibroin was prepared from silk fiber in

one step. Within this study, silk fiber was dissolved directly in a formic acid/calcium chloride

solution. Then, fibroin nanofiber production was carried out with different electrospinning

parameters (voltage, feed rate, distance) from the prepared fibroin solution. SEM images of

the produced fibroin-based nanofiber surfaces were examined and the produced surfaces were

characterized. The nanofiber diameters were calculated using Image which is an image

processing program. The produced nanofibrous surfaces consisted of smooth, bead-free fibers

with diameters of about 500 nm to 1.5 μm.