Abstract
Regenerated silk fibroin(SF)/Poly(vinyl alcohol)[PVA] blend films were prepared using different casting solvents, water and formic acid, to elucidate the effect of casting solvent on the structure and miscibility of SF/PVA blends. FTIR and XRD measurement suggested that β-sheet conformation of SF was not changed by addition of PVA in case of formic acid casting and the casting solvent determined the crystallized component of SF/PVA, leading to a different trend in the overall crystallinity between the two blends. The casting solvent had a dominant role in deciding phase behavior and molecular miscibility of blend films. SEM observation and DMTA measurement elucidated that water solvent produced phase-separated blend films while formic acid yielded one phase blend films with partial miscibility in molecular level indicating that the miscibility of SF blend can be improved by choosing a proper co-solvent.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 579-585 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Fibers and Polymers |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2007 |
Keywords
- Blend film
- Formic acid
- Miscibility
- Poly(vinyl alcohol)
- Regenerated silk fibroin
- Structural characteristics