Silk: history, obtaining, structure and properties of an old material in the development of new technologies

Abstract

The silk produced in the Bombyx mori’ glands and used in the preparation of the cocoons has been employed in the textile industry millennia ago in fabric production. These cocoons are composed mainly of fibroin (SF, Silk Fibroin), a fibrous protein that presents unique mechanical properties, in addition to being a biocompatible, biodegradable and low-cost source. This protein can be extracted from these cocoons by being processed in aqueous medium and used to obtain the most diverse materials for different applications, such as biomaterials development as body implants and in the composition of the scaffolds for tissue engineering, moreover to photonic devices as sensors, waveguides and lasers.