Publications by authors named "Sungkyun Sohn"
Based on the phase diagram constructed for water-silk fibroin-LiBr using the osmotic stress method, wet-spinning of osmotically stressed, regenerated Bombyx mori silk fibroin was performed, without the necessity of using expensive or toxic organic solvents. The osmotic stress was applied to prestructure the regenerated silk fibroin molecule from its original random coil state to a more oriented state, manipulating the phase of the silk solution in the phase diagram before the start of spinning. Various starting points for spinning were selected from the phase diagram to evaluate the spinning performance and also physical properties of fibers produced.
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- The osmotic stress method was used to study how Bombyx mori silkworm silk fibroin molecules self-assemble, revealing important thermodynamic interactions in water.
- As osmotic pressure increases, the silk fibroin molecules transition from a silk I structure to an antiparallel beta-sheet (silk II) structure.
- A phase diagram of water-silk fibroin-LiBr was developed, showing that the silk I structure relies on water for hydration, paving the way for improved methods in water-based silk fibroin spinning.