Tunable Interfacial Properties in Silk Ionomer Microcapsules with Tailored Multilayer Interactions
Abstract
Microencapsulation techniques represent a critical step in realizing highly controlled transport of functional materials in multiphase systems. The first demonstration of microcapsules prepared from minimally grafted silk ionomers (silk fibroin modified with cationic/anionic charge groups) are presented here. These tailored biomacromolecules have shown significantly increased biocompatibility over traditional polyelectrolytes and heavily grafted silk ionomers, but the low grafting density had previously limited attempts to fabricate stable microcapsules. In addition, the first microcapsules from polyethylene‐glycol‐grafted silk ionomers are fabricated and the corresponding impact on microcapsule behavior is demonstrated. The materials are shown to exhibit pH‐responsive properties, with the microcapsules demonstrating an approx. tenfold decrease in stiffness and an approx. threefold change in diffusion coefficient when moving from acidic to basic buffer. Finally, the effect of assembly conditions of the microcapsules are shown to play a large role in determining final properties, with microcapsules prepared in acidic buffers showing lower roughness, stiffness, and an inversion in transport behavior (i.e., permeability decreases at higher pH).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Aug 13, 2018
- Source ID
- 10.1002/mabi.201800176
Entities
People
- David L. Kaplan
- Elizabeth Quigley
- Ren Geryak
- Rossella Calabrese
- Sunghan Kim
- Vladimir V. Tsukruk
- Volodymyr F. Korolovych
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Air Force Research Laboratory
- Georgia Tech
- National Science Foundation Directorate for Engineering
- Tufts University