Department of Chemistry, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ 08102, USA.
Department of Physics, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ 08102, USA.
Int J Mol Sci. 2020 Jun 30;21(13):4695. doi: 10.3390/ijms21134695.
Blended biocomposites created from the electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions between polysaccharides and structural proteins exhibit useful and unique properties. However, engineering these biopolymers into applicable forms is challenging due to the coupling of the material's physicochemical properties to its morphology, and the undertaking that comes with controlling this. In this particular study, numerous properties of the silk and microcrystalline cellulose biocomposites blended using ionic liquid and regenerated with various coagulation agents were investigated. Specifically, the relationship between the composition of polysaccharide-protein bio-electrolyte membranes and the resulting morphology and ionic conductivity is explored using numerous characterization techniques, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray scattering, atomic force microscopy (AFM) based nanoindentation, and dielectric relaxation spectroscopy (DRS). The results revealed that when silk is the dominating component in the biocomposite, the ionic conductivity is higher, which also correlates with higher β-sheet content. However, when cellulose becomes the dominating component in the biocomposite, this relationship is not observed; instead, cellulose semicrystallinity and mechanical properties dominate the ionic conduction.
静电和疏水相互作用将多糖和结构蛋白混合制成的混合生物复合材料具有有用且独特的性能。然而，由于材料的物理化学性质与其形态耦合，以及控制这种耦合的艰巨性，将这些生物聚合物工程化为可用形式具有挑战性。在这项特殊的研究中，研究了使用离子液体混合并使用各种凝固剂再生的丝和微晶纤维素生物复合材料的许多性能。具体而言，使用多种表征技术，包括扫描电子显微镜（SEM）、傅里叶变换红外光谱（FTIR）、热重分析（TGA）、差示扫描量热法（DSC）、X 射线散射、原子力显微镜（AFM）基于纳米压痕和介电弛豫光谱（DRS），探索了多糖-蛋白质生物电解质膜的组成与所得形态和离子电导率之间的关系。结果表明，当丝在生物复合材料中占主导地位时，离子电导率更高，这也与较高的β-折叠含量相关。然而，当纤维素成为生物复合材料中的主要成分时，就观察不到这种关系；相反，纤维素半结晶度和机械性能主导着离子传导。
