Adjustment and control of mechanical properties of silk fibroin ultrafine fibrous membrane by hybrid electrospinning with PBS

SF/PBS composite ultrafine fibers with different mass ratios were prepared by electrospinning,and then treated with methanol,the resulting composite ultrafine fibrous membranes were characterized using field-emission scanning electron microscopy(FE-SEM),FT-IR and XRD.Analytical comparison was conducted of the morphology and structures.The mechanical properties were tested.The results showed that the morphology of hybrid ultrafine fibers with different mass ratios is similar,and their structures are uniform.With the increase of PBS,the crystallinity and mechanical properties of the membranes improve,failure tensile stress and strain increase gradually.When hybrid mass ratio of SF/PBS change from 90/10 to 50/50,the failure stress increases from 15.2 MPa to 17.3 MPa and failure strain increases from 2.1% to 38.2%.The hybrid composite ultrafine fibrous membranes show better mechanical properties when compared with those prepared with electrospun pure silk fibroin fibers.