Structure of regenerated nonwoven silk fibroin nanofiber fabric produced by wet electrospinning

Abstract

Three-dimensional nonwoven fabrics are fabricated using a silk fibroin (SF) formic acid solution and a liquid bath filled with a 70% isopropyl alcohol aqueous solution. The pore size of the developed nonwoven fabrics is observed to be not greater than 10 μm. The secondary structure of SF in nanofibers in the fabrics was investigated and the presence of both silk1 and silk2 crystals were confirmed. In comparison to the conventional nonwoven SF fabrics, the developed fabric is observed to be rich in silk2 crystals.