@article {19329, title = {Orientational behaviors of silk fibroin hydrogels}, journal = {Journal Of Applied Polymer Science}, volume = {132}, year = {2017}, month = {2017-05-02 00:00:00}, publisher = {Wiley }, abstract = {

In this study, a novel shear-induced silk fibroin hydrogel with three-dimensional (3D) anisotropic and oriented gel skeleton/network morphology is presented. Amphipathic anionic and nontoxic sodium surfactin is blended with the silk fibroin to decrease its gelation time during the mechanical shearing process. The fibroin/surfactin blended solutions undergo a facial shearing\ process to accomplish a sol{\textendash}gel transition within one hour. The dynamic sol{\textendash}gel transition kinetic analysis, gel skeleton/network morphology,
and mechanical property measurements are determined in order to visualize the fibroin/surfactin sol{\textendash}gel transition during\ the shearing process and its resulting hydrogel. The results demonstrate that there is significant b-sheet assembly from random coil\ conformations in the fibroin/surfactin blended system during the facile shearing process. The silk fibroin b-sheets further transform\ into a fibrous large-scale aggregation with orientational and parallel arrangements to the shearing direction. The shear-induced fibroin/
surfactin hydrogel exhibits notable anisotropic and oriented 3D skeleton/network morphology and a significant mechanical compressive\ strength in proportion to the shearing stress, compared with the control fibroin/surfactin hydrogel undergoing no shearing\ process. Due to its oriented gel skeleton/network structure and significantly enhanced mechanical properties, the shear-induced fibroin/\ surfactin gel may be suitable as a biomaterial in 3D oriented tissue regeneration, including for nerves, the cultivation of bone cells,\ and the repair of defects in muscle and ligament tissues.

}, keywords = {Biomaterials, gels, Mechanical Properties, structure{\textendash}property relationships}, issn = {1097-4628}, doi = {10.1002/app.45050}, url = {http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/app.45050/abstract}, author = {Chen, D. and Yin, Z. and Wu, F. and Fu, H. and Kundu, S. C. and Lu, S.} }