Degradation markers of fibroin in silk through infrared spectroscopy

Application of Electron Paramagnetic Resonance and Solid-state 13C Nuclear Magnetic Resonance of Cross-polarization/Magic Angle Spinning to Study Enzymatic Degradation of Silk Fabrics

The enzymatic degradation of silk by protease XIV has been investigated by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transfer infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), solid-state ¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance of cross-polarization/magic angle spinning (¹³C CP/MAS solid state NMR) and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). Micro-morphology of protease XIV aged samples showed that microfilaments were stripped out from the surface of silk fibers. The results of FTIR and ¹³C CP/MAS solid-state NMR indicated that the enzymatic degradation process could be divided into two stages. The EPR spectra indicated that the enzymatic degradation process was related to the free radical with the g-factor value of 2.0043. We also proposed that at the first degradation stage, the free radicals were apt to lose activities due to the loose structure of the non-crystalline region; at the second degradation stage, the free radicals produced in the crystalline region tended to be stored.

Multilateral characterization of recombinant spider silk in thermal degradation

Elucidating the complex mechanism of thermo-oxidative degradation of recombinant spider silk by systematic characterization and correlation coefficient approach.

Size of silk fibroin β-sheet domains affected by Ca2+

Addition of bioactive glass or other Ca²⁺ source to fibroin changes scaffold degradation and the mechanical and protein secondary structure properties due to the reduction in the size of β-sheet domains.

Mark–Houwink–Sakurada coefficients determination for molar mass of silk fibroin from viscometric results. SEC-MALLS approach

The results on the changes of average molar masses inBombyx morifibroin with use of size exclusion chromatography and viscometry are presented in terms of the determination of Mark–Houwink–Sakurada coefficients, which are lacking in the literature.

Evaluating degradation of silk's fibroin by attenuated total reflectance infrared spectroscopy: case study of ancient banners from Polish collections

In this study a part of research where artificially aged model samples were used as a guideline to the mechanism of degradation is presented. In previous work Bombyx Mori silk samples were exposed to various environments such as different oxygen, water vapour and volatile organic products content, all at the temperature of 150 °C [11]. Based on those results gathered with by Attenuated Total Reflectance/Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) the degradation estimators were proposed and classified as follows: (1) Primary functional groups estimators EAmideI/II - intensity ratios of Amide I C=O stretching vibration to Amide II N-H in-plane bending and C-N stretching vibrations A1620/A1514. ECOOH - band 1318 cm(-1) integral to band integral of CH3 bending vibration band located at 1442 cm(-1)P1318/P1442. (2) Secondary conformational estimators EcC=O2 - intensity ratios within Amide I C=O stretching vibration of parallel β-sheet to antiparallel β-sheet A1620/A1699. In this work estimators were verified against estimators calculated from spectra of silk samples from 8 museum objects: 3 from 19th, 2 from 18th, 1 from 17th and 2 from 16th century including 3 banners from the storage resources of the Wawel Royal Castle in Cracow, Poland.