Surfactant-Induced Nanofibrous Architecture of Silk Fibroin Hydrogels

Abstract

Hydrogels had been prepared by blending four types of surfactants such as alkyl betaine (zwitterion surfactant), tween 60 (non-ionic surfactant), sodium fatty alcohol ether sulfate (anionic surfactant) and silicone quaternary ammonium salt (cationic surfactant) with bombyx mori silk fibroin (SF) solution. Surfactant molecules would interact with SF molecules, resulting in lower critical micelle concentration (CMC). Gelation time measurements showed surfactants had significantly accelerated the hydrogelation process of SF solution, which could be controlled by the type or blend ratio of surfactants. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) indicated that the addition of surfactants affected the molecular secondary of SF. The results from X-ray diffraction indicated that surfactants and SF were only blended but phase separation with two kinds of crystalline structure. SEM images showed that the surfactants had significantly changed the morphology of hydrogels according to certain rules, especially non-ionic and cationic surfactants could induce silk fibroin solutions into porous and nanofibrous hydrogels. These results indicated that a novel and potential method not only can be used to accelerate hydrogelation process of SF solution but also can be used to alter the structural and morphological of SF hydrogels. Furthermore, the porous and nanofibrous hydrogels of SF induced by surfactants provided a novel strategy to mimic the nanofibrous structure of collagen in extracellular matrix (ECM).