Nanorheology of regenerated silk fibroin solution

We have investigated the rheological properties of regenerated silk fibroin (RSF), a viscoelastic material at micro and nano length scales, by video microscopy. We describe here the principles and technique of video microscopy as a tool in such investigations. In this work, polystyrene beads were dispersed in the matrix of RSF polymer and the positions of the embedded beads diffusing were tracked using video microscopy. An optical tweezer was used to transport and locate the bead at any desired site within the micro-volume of the sample, to facilitate the subsequent free-bead video analysis. The position information of the beads was used to obtain the time dependant mean squared displacement (MSD) of the beads in the medium and hence to calculate the dynamic moduli of the medium. We present here the results of rheological measurements of the silk polymer network in solution over a frequency range, whose upper limit is the frame capture rate of our camera at full resolution. The technique is complementary to other microrheological techniques to characterize the material, but additionally enables one to characterize local inhomogeneities in the medium, features that get averaged out in bulk characterization procedures.