Skin-friendly dressing with alcohols treatment for enhancement of mechanical and biocompatible properties

Background The biocompatibility and mechanical properties are essential for the choice of wound dressing in potential and skin-friendly applications. Methods This study is the first to reveal the feasibility assessment of skin-friendly dressing soaked in different alcohols (e.g., methanol, ethanol, isopropanol, propylene glycol, glycerol, xylitol) with promising physical characteristics. Significant findings The type of silk fibroin (SF) treated with alcohols could be altered from the random coil (silk I) to β-sheet (silk II). The structure of SF (β-sheet) tended to be even stronger, between SF and polycaprolactone (PCL). The composite nanofiber (SF/PCL/CS) soaked in the ethanol increased the crystallinity of PCL and made even stronger interactive crosslinking between SF and PCL to form a solid structure, increasing the elongation by about 30%. Furthermore, the dressing with ethanol treatment had high biocompatibility of up to 90.75%, indicating the high feasibility of the dressing to be applied on the human body. Thus, the composite nanofiber with ethanol treatment was found to be the most appropriate condition to manufacture the skin-friendly dressing for wound dressing applications at joints.