Abstract
This research reports the processability and mechanical properties of silk resins prepared by hot-pressing followed by hot-rolling and then analyzes their thermal and structural properties. The results show that regenerated silk (RS) resins are better suited for hot-rolling than Eri and Bombyx mori silk resins (untreated silk). When hot-rolling at 160 °C with a 50% of reduction ratio, maximum bending strength and Young’s modulus of RS resin reaches 192 MPa and 10.2 GPa, respectively, after pretreatment by immersion in 40 vol% ethanol, and 229 MPa and 12.5 GPa, respectively, after pretreatment by immersion in boiling water. Increased strength of the material is attributed to the increased content of aggregated strands and intramolecular linking of β sheets (attenuated total reflectance Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy) and higher crystallinity (X-ray diffraction analysis). After hot-pressing and hot-rolling, RS resins have a stable decomposition temperature (297 °C).
Highlights
Over the centuries, silk threads have been fabricated conventionally into braided, knitted and non-woven matrices
The treated silk resins were hot-rolled in several reduction ratios (5%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50%)
To support the hot-rolling process, we subjected the resin samples to an ethanol pretreatment or a boiling-water pretreatment to degrade the mechanical properties of the resins before hot-rolling
Summary
Silk threads have been fabricated conventionally into braided, knitted and non-woven matrices It discovered that the material made from silk performed attractive properties such as biocompatibility, biodegradation, non-toxicity, and adsorption properties, which are important for medical applications [1,2]. Over the past two decades, significant research has focused on producing bio-resins (e.g., silk fibroin) via various methods as an environmentally friendly alternative for a wide range of accessories made from synthetic materials. These materials offer mechanical properties equal to the Materials 2020, 13, 2716; doi:10.3390/ma13122716 www.mdpi.com/journal/materials
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