The Effect of Sample Handling on the Rheological Measurement of Regenerated Silk Fibroin Formic Acid Solution using Parallel Plate Geometry

The effect of sample handling condition on the rheological measurement of regenerated silk fibroin formic acid solution using parallel plate geometry was investigated. In case of loading method, the loading by pouring sample solution resulted in the best reproducibility of rheological measurement. Loading with spoon showed a high variance of viscosity value at low shear rate region ($0.01{\sim}1sec^{-1}$) while loading with syringe exhibited a low reproducibility of viscosity at high shear region ($1{\sim}100sec^{-1}$) with a disappearance of shear thinning phenomenon. It was revealed that the sample loading with small extra amount lead to the most reproducible result. The sample loading with the exact amount for the measuring plate resulted in a lack of reproducibility of high shear viscosity, while the loading with large extra volume produced a limited consistency of low shear viscosity. It was turned out that 3 min. of waiting time before measurement was the optimum condition for reliable result. When the waiting time was less than 1 min., the low shear viscosity was obtained with a lack of consistency. On the other hand, the sample solution started drying when the waiting time increased up to 5 min.