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Enhanced specific surface area and mechanical property of silk nanofibers aerogel for potential hemostasis
Jian Liu1, Yi Ding2, Yang Wang2
1Industrial College of Carbon Fiber and New Materials, School of Chemical Engineering and Materials, Changzhou Institute of Technology, Changzhou 213000, China; China National Textile and Apparel Council Key Laboratory for Silk Functional Materials and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China.
Abstract:
Biopolymer aerogel is a new type of material with potential applications in the biomedical field. Silk fibroin is of particular interest as a raw material with good biocompatibility and degradable. However, the low mechanical strength and small specific surface area of silk fibroin aerogels limit its further development. Herein, a fast water absorption, highly specific surface area and mechanically strong of aerogels were prepared using low crystal silk fibroin nanofibers (SNF), sol-gel process, solvent exchange and supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2) drying method. The resulting Aero-Sc displayed highly specific surface area (251 m2/g), porosity (97.6 %) and water absorption capacity (1200 %). Furthermore, with rapid water absorption and stronger erythrocyte adhesion, the Aero-Sc showed highly effective hemostasis in vitro. In vivo, animal experiments on rat liver hemorrhage model confirmed that SNF aerogels have a less blood loss (312 ± 29 mg) and faster hemostatic time (92 ± 13 s) than commercially gelatin sponge (p < 0.05). The unique properties of silk fibroin nanofibers aerogel developed in this study has great potential to be a safe and effective hemostatic medical device.
