Development of a Process for the Spinning of Synthetic Spider Silk

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering

Volume

1

Issue

7

Publisher

American Chemical Society

Publication Date

6-5-2015

First Page

577

Last Page

584

Abstract

Spider silks have unique mechanical properties but current efforts to duplicate those properties with recombinant proteins have been unsuccessful. This study was designed to develop a single process to spin fibers with excellent and consistent mechanical properties. As-spun fibers produced were brittle, but by stretching the fibers the mechanical properties were greatly improved. A water-dip or water-stretch further increased the strength and elongation of the synthetic spider silk fibers. Given the promising results of the water stretch, a mechanical double-stretch system was developed. Both a methanol/water mixture and an isopropanol/water mixture were independently used to stretch the fibers with this system. It was found that the methanol mixture produced fibers with high tensile strength while the isopropanol mixture produced fibers with high elongation.

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