Aqueous-Based Coaxial Electrospinning of Genetically Engineered Silk Elastin Core-Shell Nanofibers
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Zhu-2016-Aqueous-Based Coaxia.pdf
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Author(s)
Zhu, Jingxin
Huang, Wenwen
Zhang, Qiang
Ling, Shengjie
Chen, Ying
Kaplan, David
Date Issued
March 2016
Journal
Materials
Publisher
MDPI AG
Citation
Zhu, Jingxin, Wenwen Huang, Qiang Zhang, Shengjie Ling, Ying Chen, and David Kaplan. “Aqueous-Based Coaxial Electrospinning of Genetically Engineered Silk Elastin Core-Shell Nanofibers.” Materials 9, no. 4 (March 23, 2016): 221.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
A nanofabrication method for the production of flexible core-shell structured silk elastin nanofibers is presented, based on an all-aqueous coaxial electrospinning process. In this process, silk fibroin (SF) and silk-elastin-like protein polymer (SELP), both in aqueous solution, with high and low viscosity, respectively, were used as the inner (core) and outer (shell) layers of the nanofibers. The electrospinnable SF core solution served as a spinning aid for the nonelectrospinnable SELP shell solution. Uniform nanofibers with average diameter from 301 ± 108 nm to 408 ± 150 nm were obtained through adjusting the processing parameters. The core-shell structures of the nanofibers were confirmed by fluorescence and electron microscopy. In order to modulate the mechanical properties and provide stability in water, the as-spun SF-SELP nanofiber mats were treated with methanol vapor to induce β-sheet physical crosslinks. FTIR confirmed the conversion of the secondary structure from a random coil to β-sheets after the methanol treatment. Tensile tests of SF-SELP core-shell structured nanofibers showed good flexibility with elongation at break of 5.20% ± 0.57%, compared with SF nanofibers with an elongation at break of 1.38% ± 0.22%. The SF-SELP core-shell structured nanofibers should provide useful options to explore in the field of biomaterials due to the improved flexibility of the fibrous mats and the presence of a dynamic SELP layer on the outer surface.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Atomistic and Molecular Mechanics
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.3390/ma9040221
