Preparation, Structure and Properties of Silk Non-Woven Fabric with Different Cocoon Layers

Silk is a natural composite material composed of continuous silk filaments and has been used as textile material for a long time. Thanks to the unique properties of silk including blood compatibility and cyto-compatibility, it has been studied as biomedical and cosmetic materials. Recently, a natural silk non-woven fabric was successfully fabricated using electric winder and hot press increasing its applicability to biomedical and cosmetic applications. In the present study, new silk non-woven fabrics were fabricated using electric winder. Silk fiber in different silkworm cocoon layers were used in the fabrication and the effect of the layer on the structural characteristics and properties of silk non-woven fabric was examined. As the silk in the outer layer was used, the crystallinity index of silk non-woven fabric was decreased and the moisture regain was increased. In case of mechanical properties, the breaking strength, elongation at break, and work of rupture of silk non-woven fabric were increased with using the silk in outer layer. All silk non-woven fabrics showed excellent cell-viability.