Comparative Analysis of Silk Fibroin Membranes across Cross-Linking Methods: Processing and Characterization.

ABSTRACT: Silk fibroin (SF) extracted from silkworm silk can be transformed into transparent membranes with well-suited physical properties for ophthalmic applications. There is ample literature on the fabrication and characterization of SF-based membranes; however, the use of diverse SF extraction protocols and characterization methods or their settings makes it difficult to compare different silk membrane properties across studies. In this work, we fabricated 10 families of SF-based membranes by physical cross-linking and one non-cross-linked as a control. We evaluated transparency (ranging from 84.5 to 95.3% in the visible spectrum), enzyme stability (from 24 h to 200 days in protease XIV), decomposition temperature (280-290 °C), water uptake (40-60%), Young's modulus (8-30 MPa), roughness (1.6-2

SUBMITTER: Gutierrez-Contreras R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11411691 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature