Journal
NATURE MATERIALS
Volume 19, Issue 1, Pages 102-+Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/s41563-019-0560-8
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Funding
- National Institutes of Health [R01AR068048, R01DE016525]
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research [FA9550-17-1-0333]
- Stepping Strong Foundation
- Brigham and Women's Hospital
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Early insights into the unique structure and properties of native silk suggested that beta-sheet nanocrystallites in silk would degrade prior to melting when subjected to thermal processing. Since then, canonical approaches for fabricating silk-based materials typically involve solution-derived processing methods, which have inherent limitations with respect to silk protein solubility and stability in solution, and time and cost efficiency. Here we report a thermal processing method for the direct solid-state moulding of regenerated silk into bulk 'parts' or devices with tunable mechanical properties. At elevated temperature and pressure, regenerated amorphous silk nanomaterials with ultralow beta-sheet content undergo thermal fusion via molecular rearrangement and self-assembly assisted by bound water to form a robust bulk material that retains biocompatibility, degradability and machinability. This technique reverses presumptions about the limitations of direct thermal processing of silk into a wide range of new material formats and composite materials with tailored properties and functionalities.
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