A natural solution from caterpillar cuticles for flexible impact-resistant materials
Fenghou Yuan, Shuaifei Hu, Zihan Pang, Yuntian Cui, Xuliang Qian, Chaowei Shi, Tian Liu · 2026
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Description
Fenghou Yuan and colleagues take, in 2026 work, design cues from the skin of the Asian corn borer caterpillar for flexible impact-proof materials. The skin must absorb hits while the insect tunnels, yet stay soft. Protein tests found two abundant skin proteins that form a sheet-rich layer on chitin scaffolds, the fibrous base of insect skin.
That layer soaks up energy as hydrogen bonds break and protein shapes shift under stress, then recover. Lab tools confirmed the bond patterns behind the effect. A chitin and protein gel built on this plan reached high energy uptake, and its stiffness could be tuned by a chemical step. Fragile goods and soft devices could gain light protection.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Fenghou Yuan, Shuaifei Hu, Zihan Pang, Yuntian Cui, Xuliang Qian, Chaowei Shi, Tian Liu |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 68496 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |