Fabrication of silk sericin nanofibers from a silk sericin-hope cocoon with electrospinning method

► Silk sericin (SS) nanofibers were prepared from SS hope cocoon by electrospinning. ► The fiber morphology and fine structures influenced by spinning conditions. ► Optimum spinning conditions: SS solution conc. 8%; voltage 25kV; distance 15cm. ► The mean fiber diameter varied from 114 to 430nm at optimum spinning conditions. ► The SS fibers exhibited a β-sheet structure after methanol treatment. In this study, silk sericin nanofibers from sericin hope-silkworm, whose cocoons consist almost exclusively of sericin were successfully prepared by electrospinning method. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to observe the morphology of the fibers. The effect of spinning conditions, including the concentration of sericin cocoon solution, acceleration voltage, spinning distance and flow rate on the fiber morphologies and the size distribution of sericin nanofibers were examined. The structure and physical properties were also observed by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TG). The optimum conditions for producing finely thinner fibrous sericin nanofibers without beads were the concentration of sericin solution above 6–8wt%, acceleration voltage ranging from 25 to 32kV, spinning distance above 9cm, and flow rate above 0.06cmmin−1. The mean diameter of as spun sericin fibers varied from 114 to 430nm at the different spinning conditions. In the as-spun fibers, silk sericin was present in a random coil conformation, while after methanol treatment, the molecular structure of silk sericin was transformed into a β-sheet containing structure. Sericin hope nanofiber demonstrated thermal degradation at lower temperature than the sericin hope cocoon, which probably due to the randomly coiled rich structure of the sericin hope nanofiber.