A 3D Printable Electroconductive Biocomposite Bioink Based on Silk Fibroin-Conjugated Graphene Oxide

Abstract

Reduced graphene oxide (rGO) has wide application as a nanofiller in the fabrication of electroconductive biocomposites due to its exceptional properties. However, the hydrophobicity and chemical stability of rGO limit its ability to be incorporated into precursor polymers for physical mixing during biocomposite fabrication. Moreover, until now, no suitable rGO-combining biomaterials that are stable, soluble, biocompatible, and 3D printable have been developed. In this study, we fabricated digital light processing (DLP) printable bioink (SGOB1), through covalent reduction of graphene oxide (GO) by glycidyl methacrylated silk fibroin (SB). Compositional analyses showed that SGOB1 contains approximately 8.42% GO in its reduced state. Our results also showed that the rGO content of SGOB1 became more thermally stable and highly soluble. SGOB1 hydrogels demonstrated superior mechanical, electroconductive, and neurogenic properties than (SB). Furthermore, the photocurable bioink supported Neuro2a cell proliferation and viability. Therefore, SGOB1 could be a suitable biocomposite for neural tissue engineering.

Keywords: Graphene oxide; electrical conductivity; neurogenesis; silk fibroin.