Studies on physical properties and structure of silk. Glass transition and crystallization of silk fibroin

Abstract

Abstract Amorphous silk fibroin with random coil conformation shows endothermic and exothermic peaks and endothermic shift on the DSC (differential scanning calorimetry) curve. The endothermic shift observed at 175°C was due to the glass transition. The exothermic peak at 212°C is recognized to be the crystallization, which later was confirmed by x‐ray diffraction pattern. The endothermic peak at 280°C is shown to be the degradation.