Post-spin Stretch Improves Mechanical Properties, Reduces Necking, and Reverts Effects of Aging in Biomimetic Artificial Spider Silk Fibers
Gabriele Greco, Benjamin Schmuck, Fredrik G Bäcklund, Günter Reiter, Anna Rising · 2024
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Description
Gabriele Greco and four co-authors show that a simple post-spinning stretch upgrades artificial spider silk on every axis they measured. Lab-grown silk proteins spun into fibers promise a petroleum-free textile, but only if the fibers compete mechanically. Stretching after spinning raised strength and stiffness, as expected, and also restored a higher, more uniform alignment of the protein chains, increasing toughness overall.
Fibers degraded by aging, which loosens the protein network, partly recovered their original properties after stretching, an unexpected reversal. The team proposes the degree of necking, the visible thinning where a fiber yields, as a simple quality metric for developing spinning procedures. Process tweaks, not new proteins, deliver these gains.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Gabriele Greco, Benjamin Schmuck, Fredrik G Bäcklund, Günter Reiter, Anna Rising |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2024 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 24 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |