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Analysis of the structural characteristics of nanoscale silk particles
Author(s) -
Li Y.,
Yuen C. W. M.,
Hu J. Y.,
Cheng Y. F.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.23094
Subject(s) - silk , crystallinity , materials science , nanoscopic scale , fiber , microscale chemistry , particle (ecology) , composite material , particle size , chemical engineering , polymer chemistry , nanotechnology , oceanography , mathematics education , mathematics , geology , engineering
Nanoscale silk particles were prepared from silk fibers by a special pretreatment with the aid of specially designed machinery and techniques. Scanning electron micrographs showed that the particle sizes of the silk powders produced from silk fibers around 9–11 μm in diameter decreased from a microscale to a nanoscale after three stages of pulverization, and this was further confirmed with a laser particle size analyzer. Fourier transmission infrared analysis showed that there were no substantial changes in the chemical structure of the silk after the pulverization processes. The silk powders after the second and third pulverizations slightly differed from that of the silk fiber and the particles after the first pulverization with a greater amount of the primary aliphatic amines. Also, there were secondary amides present in the silk fiber and the powders after the first and second pulverizations but absent in the powders after the third pulverization. Moreover, the silk powders after the third pulverization had a greater number of C(CH 3 ) 3 groups than the silk fibers and the powders after the first and second pulverizations. X‐ray diffraction analysis showed that the crystallinity of the silk powders decreased when the particle sizes decreased, particularly to nanoscales. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 100: 268–274, 2006