Silk fibroin nanofibers electrospun on glass fiber as a potential device for solid phase microextraction

Abstract

The electrospinning technique was applied to coat fused silica fibers with regenerated silk fibroin (RSF) nanofibers, aiming to build a device applicable for solid phase microextraction analysis. The device was characterized by attenuated total reflectance infrared spectroscopy, thermal analyses (differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis), and scanning electron microscopy, and employed to extract/desorb isopropyl alcohol (IPA) from the headspace of an IPA aqueous solution. The electrospun coating proved to be thermally stable up to 250°C, even after 4 h of exposure to this temperature. A 22 factorial experimental design was used to evaluate the flow rate of the polymer solution and the distance between capillary tip and collector on the mean RSF fiber diameter. A low flow rate (0.20 mL h−1) and large capillary tip‐to‐collector distance (12 cm) yielded fibers with mean diameter of (304 ± 46 nm). The nanofibers were heated to 250°C, simulating the conditions in the injector of a gas chromatograph (GC). In these conditions, the RSF nanofibers were found not to melt even after 4 h of exposure to heat, although slight structural damage was detected. Preliminary assays using the as‐constructed device built under optimized electrospinning conditions (0.20 mL h−1 and 12 cm) were performed in a GC by contact with the headspace of a 50 ppm IPA solution to determine the extraction and desorption times. The results indicated that the extraction process stabilized after 20 min of contact with the headspace of the IPA solution. The desorption process was complete after 10 min at 140°C. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015, 132, 41717.

Silk: history, obtaining, structure and properties of an old material in the development of new technologies

“…2,116 Fibroin fibers are generally obtained by electrospinning, a process that affords materials with large surface area and reduced diameter. [117][118][119][120][121][122] This methodology is widely employed due to the simplicity of the experimental electrical force apparatus -it basically consists of three components, syringe, high voltage source, and collector -not to mention its high efficacy and low cost. 2,117 Fibroin is also widely used to produce three-dimensional scaffolds with controlled morphology and porosity.…”

Smart Titanium Wire Used for the Evaluation of Hydrophobic/Hydrophilic Interaction by In-Tube Solid Phase Microextraction

“…As an efficient sample preparation technique, solid-phase microextraction (SPME) can integrate sampling, preconcentration, extraction, and sample injection into one step [ 1 , 2 ]. At present, it has been widely applied in the field of environmental analysis, drug monitoring, food testing, and biological analysis in order to remove impurities and enrich the trace target compounds in real samples [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ]. It uses the adsorption of a sorbent to extract analytes from a sample matrix; these analytes are then desorbed from the sorbent and directed into an analytical instrument, such as gas chromatography (GC), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), etc.…”

Surface modification of textile material through deposition of regenerated silk fibroin

“…The use of silk as biomaterial for medical applications has been studied extensively in the past. Regenerated silk fibroin (SF) can be shaped into many different structures: fibers, films/membrane, sponge scaffolds, hydrogels, microspheres. The high biocompatibility of the biopolymer and the possibility to dissolve and regenerate the silk protein makes this protein of particular interest for preparation of medical material, i.e., composites for bone repair, vascular prostheses, implants, material for controlled drug release .…”