Song Lu¹, Jianjun Guo², Richard Ansah Herman¹, Xinyi Wu¹, Lin Ma¹, Guohua Wu^1,*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.12, No.6, pp. 1043-1055, 2024, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2024.051767 - 02 August 2024

Abstract Silk is widely used in the production of high-quality textiles. At the same time, the amount of silk textiles no longer in use and discarded is increasing, resulting in significant waste and pollution. This issue is of great concern in many countries where silk is used. Hydrogen peroxide as a naturally occurring compound is an important indicator of detection in both biology and the environment. This study aims to develop a composite fiber with hydrogen peroxide-sensing properties using discarded silk materials. To achieve this goal, firstly, polydopamine (PDA) was used to encapsulate the ZnFeO NPs… More > Graphic Abstract

PRITI^1,*, RADHA SACHAN², ROLI PURWAR³

Journal of Polymer Materials, Vol.40, No.3-4, pp. 205-214, 2023, DOI:10.32381/JPM.2023.40.3-4.6

Abstract In current research work, we have studied the blending effect of non-mulberry silk fibroin (10% weight/volume basis) and gelatin (20% weight/volume basis) in formic acid. Several blends as SF10G0, SF2G8, SF3G7, SF5G5 and SF0G10 have been made and their rheological behaviour was investigated. The blend solutions were subjected to a steady shear rheological study in the variety of range of shear rates, namely 0.01–500 sec-1 and the viscosities of blend solutions were noticed to decrease in comparison to pure silk solution. The frequency sweep was employed in dynamic rheological tests to determine complex viscosity of More >

Yanfei Feng, Jiaming Lin, Longxing Niu, Peng Pan, Xueping Liu, Linling Huang, Ying Guo, Mingzhong Li^*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.11, No.1, pp. 167-184, 2023, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2022.021339 - 10 August 2022

Abstract The development of a method for the quantitative determination of the sericin content ratio (SCR) is urgently needed for silk refining and the purification of silk fibroin for biomedical applications. In this work, a series of sericin/fibroin mixed samples with known SCRs were prepared by mixing initial samples of extracted sericin and fibroin from Bombyx mori silk. Significant differences were found in the contents of characteristic hydrophilic amino acids abundant in sericin and hydrophobic amino acids abundant in fibroin, and several linear relationships of SCR associated with the content ratios of Ser/Ala, Asp/Ala, Lys/Ala, Asp/Gly and… More > Graphic Abstract

XINGMIN XU¹, QINGQING SUN², AIRONG XU², XINBAO GUO²

Journal of Polymer Materials, Vol.39, No.1-2, pp. 167-181, 2022, DOI:10.32381/JPM.2022.39.1-2.11

Abstract Silk fibroin (SF) with renewability, biocompatibility and biodegradability shows potential application in various fields including biomedicine, tissue engineering, and wearable electronic devices. Herein, SF is used to exert effective reinforcement of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) composite film to further improve its practicability. As such, PVA/SF composite films were prepared for the first time using a facile approach. The films were characterized to investigate possible interaction of PVA with SF. Meanwhile, systematic investigations have also been completed to explore the influences of PVA/SF mass ratio on the mechanical properties (tensile strength, elongation at break), biodegradability and biocompatibility, More >

Jianjun Guo^1,2, Lingling Jia³, Sandra Senyo Fometu⁴, Qiang Ma⁵, Jinjin Wang¹, Hang Li¹, Lei Jiang⁵, Guohua Wu^1,*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.10, No.12, pp. 3373-3389, 2022, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2022.021087 - 14 July 2022

Abstract Traditionally, silkworm silk has been used to make high-quality textiles. Nevertheless, various wastes from silkworm silk textiles that are no longer used are increasing, which is also causing considerable waste and contamination. This issue is causing widespread concern in countries that use more silk. Regenerated silk fibroin (RSF) fibers have been shown to be fragile and tender, which prohibits RSF from being widely used as a structural component. Therefore, enriching the function of silk and enhancing the RSF mechanical properties are important directions to expand the comprehensive utilization of silk products. In the present research,… More >

Yiming Zhao^1,2, Hongsheng Zhao³, Zhili Wei⁴, Jie Yuan¹, Jie Jian¹, Fankai Kong¹, Haojiang Xie¹, Xingliang Xiong^1,2,*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.10, No.11, pp. 2729-2746, 2022, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2022.019721 - 29 June 2022

Abstract The flexible wearable sensors with excellent stretchability, high sensitivity and good biocompatibility are signifi- cantly required for continuously physical condition tracking in health management and rehabilitation monitoring. Herein, we present a high-performance wearable sensor. The sensor is prepared with nanocomposite hydrogel by using silk fibroin (SF), polyacrylamide (PAM), polydopamine (PDA) and graphene oxide (GO). It can be used to monitor body motions (including large-scale and small-scale motions) as well as human electrophysiological (ECG) signals with high sensitivity, wide sensing range, and fast response time. Therefore, the proposed sensor is promising in the fields of rehabilitation, More >

Dan Tian^1,*, Danni Yu², Chunhui He³

FDMP-Fluid Dynamics & Materials Processing, Vol.17, No.4, pp. 711-720, 2021, DOI:10.32604/fdmp.2021.014290 - 17 May 2021

Abstract In the search for sustainable alternatives to harmful synthetic fibers, an increasing amount of research focuses on biomimicry and natural fibers. Sea silk is an exceptional textile material. It is a kind of natural silk produced using the long silky filaments secreted by a specific bivalve mollusk (Pinna nobilis); now at edge of extinction. This paper suggests a simple but effective way to prepare artificial sea silk from Mytilus edulis. A sea silk solution is prepared using a Mytilus edulis protein, and a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) solution is mixed with the sea silk solution in order to produce More >

Yang Li^#, Xiaoying Zha^#, Xingliang Xiong, Yan Zhang, Ying Feng, Haojiang Xie, Linqing Zhang, Qifeng Jiang^*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.9, No.2, pp. 295-310, 2021, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2021.012271 - 15 December 2020

Abstract A silk fibroin (SF) spongy wound dressing incorporated with silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) was developed for biomedical applications. Ag-NPs were efficiently synthesized in situ via ultra violet (UV) with AgNO₃ as precursor and silk fibroin as reducing and protecting agent, respectively. After lyophilization, the formed silk fibroin spongy wound dressing (SFWD) exhibited polyporous morphology and inner lamellae structures, with uniform dispersion of Ag-NPs. The porous structure provided SFWD with the ability to absorb tissue exudatealmost 6 times of its own weight, which could guarantee the sustained release of Ag-NPs. By methanol treatment, SFWD showed much improved mechanical properties… More >

ZONGQIAN WANG, HAIWEI YANG, JIAN XING, ZHI LIU^*

Journal of Polymer Materials, Vol.36, No.2, pp. 149-159, 2019, DOI:10.32381/JPM.2019.36.02.4

Abstract Colored silk fibroin (SF) film can change the proportion of transmitted light composition and therefore shows potential application in optoelectronics area. However, few methods are reported for the preparation of colored SF film with good color fastness. Herein, colored SF film was prepared by coupling modification dyeing (CM-dyeing) of SF tyrosine residues in solution. SF film shows excellent color fastness due to the formation of the azo covalent bond formed by electrophilic substitution reaction between SF tyrosine residues and aniline diazonium salt. Furthermore, compared with the undyed film, the dyed SF film is effectively preserved More >

Sijing Zhang^1*, Fengjiao Ao¹, Yongping Wang², Junxue Zhao³, Yongliang Ji¹, Shuangli Chen¹

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.6, No.1, pp. 102-116, 2018, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2017.634154

Abstract A novel biosorbent was synthesized by grafting bisthiourea (BTU) on a silk sericin (SS) matrix. This biosorbent was denoted as BTU-SS and characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), zeta potential measurements, elemental analysis, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). As revealed by the adsorption experiments, both BTU-SS and SS showed low affinity towards coexisting base metallic ions in Ag(I)-Cu(II)-Zn(II)-Ni(II)-Pb(II) electronic waste leachate mixtures, while their adsorption capacities towards Ag(I) reached 30.5 and 10.4 mg·g–1 at a pH of 5.0, respectively. BTU-SS showed higher selectivity towards Ag(I) than SS, as revealed by the Ag(I) partition coefficients More >