ABSTRACT
The silk (Bombyx mori) fibre has been widely used in the textile industry, due to its excellent properties such as gloss, softness and light texture. It also shows great potential for biomedical and pharmaceutical applications. However, the natural water-absorbing deficiency of silk fibre is obvious and limits its application in absorbents and medical, cosmetic, and hygiene products. In this study, polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG-400)-etherified 2D resin (DMDHEU) was utilised to graft silk fibre (referred as grafted silk) to make up for the insufficiency of natural silk. The water absorption and contact angle analysis results revealed that grafted silk has better water absorption than the silk fibre. The morphological structure of grafted silk observed by using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) reveals more tightly packed fibres when compared to the silk fibre. And also, the distribution of PEG-400-etherified 2D resin is less uniform than the sericin distribution on the surface of the silk fibre. The stress–strain curves evaluated by using Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) indicated that the degree of polymerisation of grafted silk is higher than that of the silk fibre. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) results showed that both the decomposition temperature and thermal stability of grafted silk are higher than those of the silk fibre. Our results suggested that PEG-400-etherified 2D resin could improve the water absorption and thermal stability properties of the silk fibre effectively.
