The influence of plasticizer on the mechanical, structural, thermal and strain recovery properties following stress-relaxation process of silk fibroin/sodium alginate biocomposites for biomedical applications.

The influence of plasticizer glycerol (GLY) on the mechanical, structural, and thermal properties of silk fibroin (SF)/sodium alginate (SA) biocomposite films was investigated in detail. As the SF/SA ratio increased up to 65%, the SF content significantly improved the Tensile strength (σ), Young's modulus (E) but reduced the elongation at break (ε). To modify and enhance the elasticity and flexibility of the biocomposite films, the GLY as a plasticizer was used at different ratio from 20 to 50% for each SF/SA biocomposite films.