Abstract
Geometric confinement is a promising method for the reconstruction of silk fibroin to form diversified structures with excellent mechanical properties. To accomplish geometric confinement, a water vapor assistant embossing process is used with porous anodic aluminum oxide templates, yielding silk fibroin nanopillars with diameters ranging from 40 nm to 130 nm. The elastic modulus of the regenerated silk fibroin nanopillars is investigated with atomic force microscopy nanoindentation analysis. Compared to films with the same treatment conditions, geometric confinement provided a twofold increase in elastic modulus in embossed silk fibroin nanopillars, indicating that β-sheet crystal ordering occurred during the water vapor assistant embossing process. These results demonstrate the feasibility and mechanical property enhancement of the embossing method to fabricate silk nanostructures, and will be useful in designing miniaturized devices.
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