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Silk Fibroin Processing from CeCl 3 Aqueous Solution: Fibers Regeneration and Doping with Ce(III)
Author(s) -
Rizzo Giorgio,
Lo Presti Marco,
Giannini Cinzia,
Sibillano Teresa,
Milella Antonella,
Matzeu Giusy,
Musio Roberta,
Omenetto Fiorenzo G.,
Farinola Gianluca M.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
macromolecular chemistry and physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.57
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1521-3935
pISSN - 1022-1352
DOI - 10.1002/macp.202000066
Subject(s) - fibroin , aqueous solution , biopolymer , chaotropic agent , chemical engineering , polymer chemistry , x ray photoelectron spectroscopy , fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , self healing hydrogels , dissolution , materials science , bombyx mori , chemistry , silk , polymer , organic chemistry , composite material , biochemistry , gene , engineering
Abstract Silk fibroin (SF) obtained from Bombyx mori cocoon is a very promising biopolymer. It can be processed from aqueous solutions to obtain many versatile scaffolds useful in optoelectronics, photonics, and biomedicine. Aqueous solutions are prepared by dissolving degummed fibroin with chaotropic agents and then purifying by dialysis. This work presents, for the first time, a solubilization protocol, involving CeCl 3 ·7H 2 O as chaotropic salt in water and ethanol, that allows to regenerate SF under a fibrous form, unlike the standard Ajisawa’s method, which uses CaCl 2 and allows to obtain aqueous gels. All the experimental analyses performed (SEM, XPS, WAXS, ATR‐FTIR, NMR) suggest that the fiber recovered preserves most of the morphological and structural features of the pristine SF and is doped with Ce(III) ions, that interact mainly with the oxygen atoms of CO moieties and side‐chains of amino acids. Ce(III) doped SF could be the base for new luminescent materials.