Thermal and morphological properties of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) with the addition of silk fibroin and silk sericin prepared from bombyx mori silk

Abstract

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is a non-toxic polymer, biocompatible and biodegradable polymer. Advantages of PVA are film formation, good adhesion, flexibility and good resistance to oxygen permeability. Disadvantage of PVA is low degree of crystallinity. Silk fiber from bombyx mori silk consists of silk fibroin (SF) and silk sericin (SS). Silk fibroin has unique properties such as excellent tensile strength, biocompatibility, biodegradation, and ability to support cell adhesion. Silk fibroin and silk sericin contain many amino acids, most of which have strongly polar side groups such as hydroxyl, carboxyl, and amino groups. The protein can be cross-linked, copolymerized, and blended with other macromolecular materials to produce materials of improved properties. In this study both silk fibroin and silk sericin were prepared from bombyx mori silk via extraction process and degumming process, respectively. Silk fibroin and silk sericin were mixed with PVA at various contents including 1,3,5 and 10%v/v. Thermal properties of all specimens were obtained by using Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA).