Issue 27, 2020, Issue in Progress

Influence of alcohol treatments on properties of silk-fibroin-based films for highly optically transparent coating applications

Abstract

Thin films of silk fibroin were prepared by solvent evaporation from calcium chloride/ethanol aqueous solution. The influence of alcohol treatments on thermal, mechanical and optical properties of silk-fibroin-based film is presented. To understand the conformal structure of the alcohol-treated silk fibroin film, the IR spectral decomposition method is employed. The optical properties especially the optical transparency, haze and fluorescence emission of alcohol-treated silk fibroin film is systematically investigated together with the conformal structure to understand the effect of the fibril such as the beta-sheet influencing the optical properties. Monohydric alcohol treatment increased beta-turn content in the regenerated silk fibroin structure. These affected the amount of light diffusion and scattering within silk-fibroin films. With alcohol-treatment, all the silk-fibroin films exhibit exceptional optical transparency (>90%) with different levels of optical haze (2.56–14.17%). In particular, ethanol-treated silk-fibroin films contain the highest content of beta-turns (22.8%). The ethanol-treated silk-fibroin films displayed a distinct interference of oscillating crests and troughs in the UV-Vis transmittance spectra, thereby showing the lowest optical haze of 2.56%. In contrast, the silk-fibroin films treated with methanol and propanol exhibit the highest (14.17%) and second-highest (10.29%) optical transmittance haze, respectively. The beta-turn content of the silk-fibroin films treated with methanol is the lowest (20.5%). These results show the relationship between the beta-turn content and optical haze properties. The results manifestly provide a method to manufacture exceptional optically transparent silk-fibroin films with adjustable light diffusion and scattering which can be designed to meet specific applications with the potential to provide UV-shielding protection via monohydric alcohol treatment.

Graphical abstract: Influence of alcohol treatments on properties of silk-fibroin-based films for highly optically transparent coating applications

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
22 Mar 2020
Accepted
15 Apr 2020
First published
21 Apr 2020
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Adv., 2020,10, 15913-15923

Influence of alcohol treatments on properties of silk-fibroin-based films for highly optically transparent coating applications

S. Kaewpirom and S. Boonsang, RSC Adv., 2020, 10, 15913 DOI: 10.1039/D0RA02634D

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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