Preparation of non-woven mats from all-aqueous silk fibroin solution with electrospinning method

In the present study, we successfully prepared non-woven mats from stable regenerated silk fibroin aqueous solution at high concentration. Scanning electronic microscope (SEM) was used to observe the morphology of the fibers. The structure of the fibers was characterized using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The mechanical tests were also performed. In the as-spun fibers, silk fibroin was present in a random coil conformation, the stress and strain at break were 0.82 MPa and 0.76%, respectively, while after methanol treatment, the silk fibroin was transformed into a β-sheet-containing structure, the stress and strain at break increased to 1.49 MPa and 1.63%, respectively. This study provided an option for the electrospinning of silk fibroin without using organic solvent or blending with any other polymers, which may be important in tissue engineering scaffold preparation.