Preparation and Characterization of Silk Fibroin Aerogel

Silk protein fibroin,as a biomedical material,has good biocompatibility,biodegradability,regulation and excellent physical and chemical properties. In this work,a low density porous silk fibroin material is prepared from fibroin solution by high-speed shearing with impeller. By adjusting shear rate of the stirrer,silk fibroin aerogel with different sizes of the aperture is prepared. In general, this aerogel has small porosity, uniform pores, good mechanical properties and slow rate of degradation. It is observed that increasing the shear rate results in higher porosity of aerogel,while the diameter of the aerogel becomes smaller. This silk aerogel may offer a new option as biomaterial for the tissue engineering application based on the information on the structural behaviors.