Silk-Derived Peptide Modification to Polymers Improves the Miscibility of Composite Materials with Silk Fibroin

Abstract

Silk fibroin (SF)/polymer composite materials typically exhibit degraded material strength because of their low miscibility. Therefore, we hypothesize that compatibility issues can be solved by modifying SF primary structure motif peptides into polymers. Physical property and structural analyses are performed on fabricated SF/polymer composites. These results suggest that miscibility is improved by modifying the peptide in terms of its thermal properties and molecular mobility. Further, physical properties are improved by peptide modification and are correlated with molecular structure. These findings indicate that SF primary structure motif peptide modification is an innovative technology that can solve the miscibility issue of SF/polymer composite materials.