Coeffect of Silk Fibroin and Self-Assembly Monolayers on the Biomineralization of Calcium Carbonate

Abstract

As is well-known, the formation of nacre is governed by the cooperation of soluble macromolecules and insoluble predeposited matrix which is composed of β-chitin and silk fibroin-like protein. However, little is known about the influence of silk fibroin on the biomineralization of CaCO3. In this paper, we described an effective mimic strategy in which growth of CaCO3 was well controlled by the cooperative interaction of silk fibroin molecules and short-chain silane self-assembled monolayers (SAMs). The diversification from calcite crystals, amorphous CaCO3 to aragonite crystals, accompanied with the structure transformation of silk fibroin molecules was first observed. We think these results offer useful and important information, which avails us to clarify the specific role of pure silk fibroin in the biomineralization process.