Protein Roll-to-Roll Coating

(***Publication in process, do not reproduce***)

While many researchers have found truly amazing applications for silk fibroin (the main protein in silkworm silk) beyond traditional textiles and sutures, scaling these innovations beyond the academic lab can be a challenge due the close relationship between the structure and function of this material, and the sensitivity of the material’s structure to processing. For part of my thesis work, I developed a process based on roll-to-roll (R2R) processing to produce one format of silk fibroin reliably, while maintaining the ability to control the structure and therefore the propeties of the material. You can see a simplified view of the coating and drying roll-to-roll process (a), and an optically clear protein-coated substrate as a final product (b). A pilot roll-to-roll line at University of Massachusetts Amherts (c), and an optically transparent coated film held above a printed letter-sized piece of paper (d).