Sj. Park et al., Structural changes and their effect on mechanical properties of silk fibroin/chitosan blends, J APPL POLY, 74(11), 1999, pp. 2571-2575
Silk fibroin/chitosan blend films were prepared by the solvent casting meth
od. Miscibility between silk fibroin and chitosan was examined by dynamic m
echanical thermal analysis. Structural changes of silk fibroin by the addit
ion of chitosan were investigated by IR spectroscopy. The conformational tr
ansition of silk fibroin from random coil form to beta-sheet structure indu
ced by blending with chitosan resulted in the increase of crystallinity and
density of the blend films. The blend film containing 30 wt % chitosan exh
ibited a maximum increase in crystallinity and density. It was found that t
he tensile strength and initial tensile modulus of blend films were greatly
enhanced with increasing the chitosan content and showed a maximum value a
t the composition of 30 wt % chitosan. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.