A Review on Silk Fibers and Their Medical Applications

Abstract

This mini-compilation study included the chemical structure, mechanical, thermal, and dimensional properties of silk fiber, its production process, pre-treatment, and biomedical applications from various experimental studies, which are compiled and summarized. The silk fiber should have a degumming process before using biomedical applications. The 25% concentration for Na2CO3 in ethanol solution (80%) as a coagulant chemical with a salt such as LiB2 (9 M) at a temperature of 98°C for 45 minutes at pH between 6 and 7 should be applied for the degumming process of silk fiber. It has some biomedical applications such as artificial veins and surgical sutures. Its biomedical applications can be studied experimentally by changing manufacturing processes and their process parameters in the future.