PRELIMINARY STUDIES ON UTILIZATION OF SERICIN SILKWORM COCOON FOR NANOFIBER PREPARATION BY ELECTROSPINNING

• Main Author: UMAM (NIM :201514014), KHAIRUL
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/22808
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

The main components of silkworm cocoons are fibroin and sericin; the first one is used for silk fibers while the second one is often removed in degumming process. Previous research showed that sericin can be utilized as biomaterials with a wide range of applications such as recycled biomaterials, medical biomaterials, membranes, textile fibers with special properties and cosmetics. Unfortunately, in silk industries in Indonesia, sericin has not been utilized yet. Therefore, this study <br /> <br /> <br /> aims to open a new application of sericin in the field of textile by preparing sericin nano fiber using electrospinning technique. The first stage of this work <br /> <br /> <br /> was the extraction of silkworm cocoons using high temperature and pressure, then the preparation of sericin powder by lyophilization method and finally the formation of nano fibers by electrospinning. The extraction of silkworm cocoons was carried out in a high temperature-high pressure dyeing machine, which <br /> <br /> <br /> produced sericin solution with a concentration of 38.16 mg/mL. The sericin powder was produced by freeze-drying method with a yield of 15.08%. It was found that the sericin could not be used as a single component in producing nano fibers by electrospinning. However, nano fibers can be formed when sericin was mixed with other polymers, such as polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and chitosan. In <br /> <br /> <br /> PVA-sericin solution, sericin was dissolved in trifluoro acetic acid (TFA) with concentration varied from 16 to 20% w/w. Each sericin solution was mixed with 10% PVA w/w in the ratio of 50:50. The voltage of electrospinning used was 25 kV, the Taylor cone distance (TCD) was 10 cm and the flow rate was 0.1 &#956;L/h. Higher sericin concentration resulted in good PVA-sericin fiber without melt. In <br /> <br /> <br /> the preparation of chitosan-sericin solution, chitosan and sericin was dissolved in TFA with a composition of 1:1, 1:3 and 1:5 (% w/w). These solutions were electrospinned with a voltage of 30, 32.5 and 35 kV; flow rate of 0.4 and 0.6 &#956;L/h; TCD of 10 and 15 cm. The clearest form of fibers and without melt was obtained at a concentration of 10% PVA : 20% sericin (50:50) with electrospinning condition parameters are voltage 25 kV, TCD 10 cm and a flow <br /> <br /> <br /> rate of 0.1 &#956;L/hour. The optimum chitosan-sericin fiber characteristics having the smallest average diameter and variation coefficient was achieved when the composition of chitosan-sericin was 1:3 (% w/w) and the voltage of the <br /> <br /> <br /> electrospinning was 30 kV, the flow rate was 0.4 mL/h and the TCD was 15 cm. iv It can be concluded that sericin can be used as a material for preparing nano fibers by electrospinning.