Morales Abneris, Seelam Sneha, Love Stacy A, O'Malley Sean M, Hu Xiao, Salas-de la Cruz David
Center for Computational and Integrative Biology, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ, United States of America.
Center for Computational and Integrative Biology, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ, United States of America; Department of Physics, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ, United States of America.
Int J Biol Macromol. 2023 May 1;236:123971. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.123971. Epub 2023 Mar 9.
In recent decades, research into biomaterials such as silk or cellulose has rapidly expanded due to their abundance, low cost, and tunable morphological as well as physicochemical properties. Cellulose is appealing due to its crystalline and amorphous polymorphs while silk is attractive due to its tunable secondary structure formations which is made up of flexible protein fibers. When these two biomacromolecules are mixed, their properties can be modified by changing their material composition and fabrication methodology, e.g., solvent type, coagulation agent, and temperature. Reduced graphene oxide (rGO) can be used to increase molecular interactions and stabilization of natural polymers. In this study, we sought to determine how small amounts of rGO affect the carbohydrate crystallinity and protein secondary structure formation as well as physicochemical properties and how they affect overall ionic conductivity of cellulose-silk composites. Properties of fabricated silk and cellulose composites with and without rGO were investigated using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, X-Ray Scattering, Differential Scanning Calorimetry, Dielectric Relaxation Spectroscopy, and Thermogravimetric Analysis. Our results show that addition of rGO influenced morphological and thermal properties of cellulose-silk biocomposites, specifically through cellulose crystallinity and silk β-sheet content which further impacted ionic conductivity.
近几十年来，由于丝绸或纤维素等生物材料储量丰富、成本低廉且具有可调节的形态以及物理化学性质，对它们的研究迅速扩展。纤维素因其结晶和无定形多晶型物而具有吸引力，而丝绸则因其由柔性蛋白质纤维组成的可调节二级结构形成而具有吸引力。当这两种生物大分子混合时，可以通过改变它们的材料组成和制造方法，如溶剂类型、凝固剂和温度，来改变它们的性质。还原氧化石墨烯（rGO）可用于增加天然聚合物的分子相互作用和稳定性。在本研究中，我们试图确定少量rGO如何影响碳水化合物结晶度和蛋白质二级结构形成以及物理化学性质，以及它们如何影响纤维素-丝绸复合材料的整体离子电导率。使用傅里叶变换红外光谱、扫描电子显微镜、X射线散射、差示扫描量热法、介电弛豫光谱和热重分析研究了添加和不添加rGO的人造丝绸和纤维素复合材料的性能。我们的结果表明，添加rGO会影响纤维素-丝绸生物复合材料的形态和热性能，特别是通过纤维素结晶度和丝绸β-折叠含量，这进一步影响了离子电导率。
