Mechanical and morphological characterization of a novel silk/cellulose-based soft composite

Soft hydrophilic composites are excellent candidate materials for biomedical applications such as scaffold engineering, tissue regeneration and cell culture. Their porous internal architecture and compliance help promote cell growth and proliferation. Silk fibroin (SF) and nanocellulose fibres (CNF) are two of the most widely-used materials for the development of soft biomimetic scaffolds. In this study, SF and CNF are mixed in different mass ratios to develop compliant composites with varying mechanical properties and morphology. After fabricating these soft biomimetic composites, we observe that a particular combination of the individual phases yield the optimum mechanical properties in terms of stiffness, strength as well as elongation-at-break point (EOB). Internal architecture, rate-dependent, viscoelastic characterization and FTIR spectra are reported.