Dissolution and wet spinning of silk fibroin using phosphoric acid/formic acid mixture solvent system

Regenerated silk fibroin (SF) filaments could be prepared by wet spinning in common solvent/coagulation system. SF was directly dissolved in mixture solvent of phosphoric acid and formic acid (20/80-30/70 ratio) and coagulated in methanol bath. The concentration and stability of SF dope solution have been studied by varying the mixture ratios of these solvents in accordance with elucidating the role of formic acid in the mixture solvent system. Morphological structure as well as crystalline structure of the regenerated filament was examined using SEM and XRD analyses. As a result of tensile test, the regenerated SF filament, which was made by one-step dissolution and coagulation process, had good mechanical properties, 2.3 gf/d tenacity and 18% breaking strain. In this study, a simple wet spinning method which enables to apply to practical production has been reported for the preparation of the regenerated SF filament.