Silkworm-based silk fibers by electrospinning

Abstract

Both fibroin-based and sericin-based biomaterials have been studying extensively due to their wide applications, however the extraction of either fibroin or sericin protein is extremely complicated. Here we prepare the protein solution directly from alive silkworms instead of extracting proteins from silkworm silk. The protein solution and the polyvinyl alcohol solution are mixed in different weight ratios to produce silkworm-based silk fibers, which have many special properties like high mechanical strength and good wetting property. The new production has potential applications as a new textile fabric or a new bio-inspired material. Keywords: Silkworm cocoon, Air permeability, Electrospinning, Proteins, Nanofibers, Variational principle, Bratu-like equation