Degradation of silk

Elliott DF. Specific chemical methods for the fission of peptide bonds. I. /V-acyl to O-acyl transformation in the degradation of silk fibroin. Biochem J 542, 1952. 

The objective of this work is to screen stabilizers for their effectiveness in slowing or preventing the degradation of silk fabric. The treated fabrics were then subjected to accelerated aging... 

The thermal degradation of silk was studied by Kurup-pillai, Hersh, and Tucker ( Historic Textile and Paper Materials, ACS Advances in Chemistry Series, No. 212, 1986) by measuring the tensile strength of silk fibers at various times of exposure to elevated temperature. The loss of tensile strength follows first-order kinetics,... 

Determine the first-order rare constants for the thermal degradation of silk for each of the three expert ... 

Cultivated varieties of silk can be degummed by extraction with water at 120 C for about 2 h and repeating the process three to four times. In this ease degradation of silk is minimum, but use of pressure equipment is essential. However, some modification of the protein molecule does take place. 

Silk fibrion is highly sensitive to oxidising agents like hypochlorite and chlorite solutions. Oxidation and substitution in the benzene ring of tyrosine is responsible for degradation of silk with the formation of chloro-amino acids, ketonic acids and chloramine in several stages [105]. 

Degradation of silk scaffolds depends on fibroin concentration, pore size, and solvents. 

The condensation of two or more molecules of an amino acid involves the formation of PEPTIDE linkages in which 1 molecule of water is eliminated between one NHj and one COOH group. (See also Table 26.1, page 552, showing the degradation of silk.)... 

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