Regenerated protein fibers. I. Research and development of a novel solvent for silk fibroin

✍ Scribed by Kiyoichi Matsumoto; Hiroyuki Uejima

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 149 KB
• Volume: 35
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0887-624X
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0518(19970730)35:10<1949::aid-pola9>3.0.co;2-i

✦ Synopsis

An alcoholic-aqueous solution of LiBr rH 2 O is a useful solvent for silk fibroin, if the ratio of alcohol content to water content therein is 1 or more. The mixed solvents consisting of ethanol, water, and LiBr rH 2 O showed a higher solubility if they contained a lesser amount of water. They further proved able to easily dissolve more than 20% by weight of silk fibroin. Solvents poorer in water content and richer in LiBrrH 2 O showed a higher value of [h]; Huggins' coefficient of said solutions varied within a range 0.5-1.0, the minimum appearing at a water content of about 10% weight. Fibroin molecules remained stable in those solutions. The novel solvents for silk fibroin that have been developed by us are named ''MU solvents,'' by taking the initials in the names of Matumoto/Uejima.