Tunable silk matrices using ionic liquids and their biomedical applications

Abstract

Silk fibroin (SF) is a well-known natural protein with considerable potential to develop high-value materials for biomedical applications due to its intrinsic features, such as availability, versatility, and biocompatibility. In recent investigations, ionic liquids (ILs) have attracted attention as green solvents for tuning SF-based biomaterials. Like traditional solvents, ILs can be used as a solvent to process SF in different shapes, such as films, hydrogels, sponges, and microparticles. The resulting architectures can be applied to regenerate skin, bone, and cartilage and act as drug-delivery systems. Additionally, the IL platform has demonstrated its potential for creating SF-based therapeutic platforms with enhanced environmental and biological features. This chapter provides an up-to-date review of the SF-based matrices produced using ILs, the strategies used for processing, main properties, biomedical applications, and future perspectives.