脱胶是丝绸纺织工业和丝绸基先进材料工艺中最关键的一步。然而,由于效率不足,目前常见的脱胶技术在很大程度上受到限制,明显的水解损害和难以长期储存。这里,探索了由氯化胆碱(ChCl)和尿素组成的低共熔溶剂(DES)对Bombyxsori蚕丝纤维脱胶的方法,而无需进行任何进一步的处理。与传统碱法相比,DES可以在短短40分钟内快速去除约26.5%的丝胶,七个循环后其脱胶效率几乎没有下降。由于DES分子的“大体积”脱胶机理,所得丝胶具有250kDa的大分子量。此外,由于抗菌活性和稳定作用,在获得的丝胶蛋白/DES溶液中没有发生聚集并且触发了强烈的细菌生长抑制。此外,由于结晶区的良好保留和无定形区的轻微膨胀,无丝胶的丝心蛋白显示出水分吸收和染料吸收的显着增加,同时保持良好的机械性能。具有高效率的特点,减少水污染,易于储存丝胶和高质量的纤维,这种方法对于丝绸湿法加工具有很大的潜力。
Degumming is the most critical step for the silk textile industry and the process of silk-based advanced materials. However, current common degumming techniques are largely limited because of insufficient efficiency, obvious hydrolysis damage and difficulty in long-term storage. Here, deep eutectic solvent (DES) constituted of choline chloride (ChCl) and urea was explored to Bombyx mori silk fibers degumming without combining any further treatment. Compared to traditional alkali methods, DES could quickly remove about 26.5 % of sericin in just 40 min, and its degumming efficiency hardly decrease after seven cycles. Owing to the \"tear off\" degumming mechanism of DES molecules with \"large volume\", the resulted sericin has a large molecular weight of 250 kDa. In addition, because of antibacterial activity and stabilizing effect, no aggregation occurred and strong bacterial growth inhibition was triggered in the obtained sericin/DES solution. Furthermore, thanks to the good retention of crystalline region and slight swelling of amorphous area, the sericin-free fibroin showed significant increases in moisture absorption and dye uptake, while maintaining good mechanical properties. Featured with high efficiency, reduction in water pollution, easy storage of sericin as well as high quality fibers, this approach is of great potential for silk wet processing.