Flexible and ultra-fast bioresorbable nanofibers of silk fibroin-PVA composite

Electronic devices capable of easily degradable, physically destructible, and bioresorbable which are prepared using abundant and natural biomaterials has been an interesting research topic. These transient electronic devices help in the reduction of non-degradable electronic waste and can be explored for the next generation intelligent security applications. Here, in the current work a fully transient novel SF-PVA composite based flexible and biocompatible nanofibers were successfully prepared via simple and facile electrospinning based approach. Combining the silk fibroin with PVA has induced different structural transitions i.e. percentage change in the secondary structures which are studied using XRD and FTIR analysis. Besides, the chemical and morphological studies were done using the Raman, and FESEM analysis. The dissolution tests were performed on ultra-thin electrospun nanofibrous mats which revealed the ultra-fast dissolution of nanofibers in both DI water as well as in PBS with a dissolution time of less than 3 seconds. The as prepared nanofibers exhibit programmable dissolutions, superior mechanical flexibility for the different concentration ratio of PVA without further affecting its morphological properties. The tunable degradation rates are primarily due to the change in the structural transitions induced due to the variation in the percentage of the beta sheets which are conformed from the XRD and FTIR-FSD analysis. Thus, the novel nanocomposite biomaterial based nanofibers paves the path towards the development of the upcoming flexible and transient electronic applications.