Preparation and Characterization of Poly(D,L-Lactide) and Silk Fibroin Nanocomposite Microparticles for Potential Use in Tissue Engineering

Abstract

Nanocomposite poly(D,L-lactide) (PDLL)-based microparticles containing silk fibroin (SF) nanoparticles were prepared by oil-in-water emulsification solvent evaporation technique of PDLL/SF nanocomposite. The PDLL/SF nanocomposite was obtained from nanoprecipitating SF into PDLL solution in acetone before dried in vacuum oven. The nanocomposite microparticles with PDLL/SF ratios of 20/1, 10/1 and 5/1 (w/w) were prepared and investigated. Interactions between PDLL and SF of microparticles can be observed from FT-IR and thermogravimetric results. Sizes of the SF nanoparticles and the nanocomposite microparticles from SEM micrographs were in the ranges of 50-500 nm and 50-200 µm, respectively. The sizes of SF nanoparticles and nanocomposite microparticles increased as increasing the SF ratio. Surface roughness of the resulted microparticles also increased with the SF ratio.