{"id":135002,"date":"2017-07-27T20:36:43","date_gmt":"2017-07-27T20:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextbigfuture.com\/?p=135002"},"modified":"2017-10-14T12:56:19","modified_gmt":"2017-10-14T12:56:19","slug":"manmade-spider-silk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextbigfuture.com\/2017\/07\/manmade-spider-silk.html","title":{"rendered":"Improved Manmade spider silk"},"content":{"rendered":"

A team of architects and chemists from the University of Cambridge has designed super-stretchy and strong fibers which are almost entirely composed of water, and could be used to make textiles, sensors and other materials.<\/a> The fibers, which resemble miniature bungee cords as they can absorb large amounts of energy, are sustainable, non-toxic and can be made at room temperature.<\/p>\n

This new method not only improves upon earlier methods of making synthetic spider silk, since it does not require high energy procedures or extensive use of harmful solvents, but it could substantially improve methods of making synthetic fibers of all kinds, since other types of synthetic fibers also rely on high-energy, toxic methods.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAlthough our fibers are not as strong as the strongest spider silks, they can support stresses in the range of 100 to 150 megapascals, which is similar to other synthetic and natural silks,\u201d said Shah. \u201cHowever, our fibers are non-toxic and far less energy-intensive to make.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fibers are capable of self-assembly at room temperature, and are held together by supramolecular host-guest chemistry, which relies on forces other than covalent bonds, where atoms share electrons.<\/p>\n

The fibers also show very high damping capacity, meaning that they can absorb large amounts of energy, similar to a bungee cord. There are very few synthetic fibers which have this capacity, but high damping is one of the special characteristics of spider silk. The researchers found that the damping capacity in some cases even exceeded that of natural silks.<\/p>\n

PNAS – Bioinspired supramolecular fibers drawn from a multiphase self-assembled hydrogel<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cCurrently they make around a few tens of milligrams of these materials and then pull fibers from them,\u201d he says. \u201cBut we want to try and do this at a much larger scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

To do so, the team is working on a robotic device to pull and spin fibers more quickly and at a larger scale than previously. They\u2019ve had some success, Shah says, and continue to explore the process.<\/p>\n