Oxidizing and Nano-dispersing the Natural Silk Fibers

Nanoscale Research Letters

Yimin Fan¹  Ke Zheng¹  Yanlei Hu¹  Wenwen Zhang¹  Juan Yu¹  Shengjie Ling² 

[1] Jiangsu Co-Innovation Center of Efficient Processing and Utilization of Forest Resources, Jiangsu Key Lab of Biomass-based Green Fuel & Chemicals, Key Laboratory of Forestry Genetics & Biotechnology (Nanjing Forestry University) of Ministry of Education, College of Chemical Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University;School of Physical Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University;

关键词: Silk;    Oxidation;    Negatively charged nanofibers;    Aggregating-redispersing;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s11671-019-3080-1

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Abstract Natural Bombyx mori silk (BS) and Antheraea pernyi silk (AS) were oxidized in sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) solutions. Thereafter, individual silk nanofibers (SNs) were achieved after sonicating the oxidized silk slurries, where the diameters of the resultant SNs were ~ 100 nm and several micrometers in length. Thin membranes were formed by casting the SNs, which had optically transparent (above 75% transmission), mechanically robust (~4.5 GPa of Young’s modulus), and enhanced wetting properties. An interesting aggregating-dispersing (re-dispersing) process by using these SNs was strongly regulated by adjusting the pH values. Consequently, the negatively charged SNs could be concentrated up to ~ 20 wt% (100 times that of the initial dispersion) and offered extraordinary benefits for storage, transportation, and engineering applications.

【 授权许可】

Unknown