Due to its high biocompatibility and biodegradability, silk fibroin – produced from
Bombyx mori (B. mori) cocoons – has been at the forefront of research for many
biomedical application formats: hydrogels, films, microspheres, and porous
sponges/scaffolding, to name a few. For drug delivery, in particular, porous particles are
desirable for their large surface area, uniform and tunable pore structure, and high
porosity. This thesis focuses on the fabrication of porous particles from silk fibroin by the
very interesting Ouzo effect. The Ouzo effect, so named because of the Greek
beverage ouzo, describes the phenomenon of an ethanol + anethole oil solution turning
milky-white in color once water is added in due to the spontaneous nucleation of oil
droplets. Using the Ouzo effect to fabricate porous particles solves the numerous issues
of typical colloidal droplet formation by not requiring energy nor a surfactant, which is
cost effective and environmentally friendly; the Ouzo effect also tackles the so-called
“coffee ring effect” of previous particle fabrication, in which a solution’s suspension
medium travels to the edge of a droplet and leaves a residual ring. An Ouzo droplet is
able to self-lubricate at the droplet’s edge and form an oil ring that forces the
suspension medium to form a 3-D particle with tunable pore shape. By using the Ouzo
effect to fabricate these particles from silk fibroin, the result is consistent macro-porous
(pore diameter being greater than 50 nm) structures with relative 2-D porosity values
greater than 70%. These features make the particles ideal for drug loading and delivery
