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Improving the photostability of silk using a covalently-bound UV absorber

Version 2 2024-06-05, 09:50
Version 1 2017-04-06, 11:13
journal contribution
posted on 2024-06-05, 09:50 authored by W Chen, Z Wang, Z Cui, D Pan, K Millington
The covalent coupling reaction between the tyrosine residues on silk fibroin and a hydroxyphenyl benzotriazole UV absorber containing a diazonium group caused a decrease in UV–visible transmittance through silk fabric together with yellowing due to the presence of the conjugated azo-benzotriazole chromophore. After exposure to UV irradiation, untreated silk was yellowed due to photooxidation of the aromatic amino acid residues in the fibroin protein, whereas the modified silk concurrently experienced some photoyellowing of the protein, together with photobleaching of the covalently bonded conjugated chromophore. Although application of the UV absorber caused a decrease in tensile strength, modification of silk with a higher amount led to a very low color change and less decrease in tensile strength than untreated silk fabric following UV irradiation.

History

Journal

Polymer degradation and stability

Volume

121

Pagination

187-192

Location

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

ISSN

0141-3910

eISSN

1873-2321

Language

eng

Publication classification

C Journal article, C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2015, Elsevier

Publisher

Elsevier