Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL MACROMOLECULES
Volume 104, Issue -, Pages 533-538Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2017.06.069
Keywords
Silk fiber; Metal nanoparticles; Feeding; Mechanical properties; Green
Funding
- Jiangsu Specially Appointed Professor Program Sujiaoshi [[2015]17]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [11372162, 11432008]
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This paper reports the impacts of direct feeding silkworms with different nanoparticles (Cu, Fe, and TiO2) on the morphology, structures, and mechanical properties of the resulting silk fiber (SF). The contents of the Cu nanoparticles were 38 times higher in the posterior silk glands and only 2-3 times higher in the SF and in the middle silk glands compared with the controlled groups. Significant changes of the surface morphology, structures, and diameter of the Cu nanoparticle fed SF have been observed, which are attributed to a slight SF protein reconstruction or conformational change in the mixture of silk fibroin and sericin in the silk glands. The resulting Cu-containing SF exhibits good tensile strength of 360 MPa and reaches a strain of 38%, which are 89% and 36% higher than those of the natural SF. This study offers a new green strategy for the easy modification to achieve robust composite SF. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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