Artificial spider silk has emerged as a biobased fiber that could replace some petroleumbased materials that are on the market today. Recent progress made it possible to produce the recombinant spider silk protein NT2RepCT at levels that would make the commercialization of fibers spun from this protein economically feasible. However, for most applications, the mechanical properties of the artificial silk fibers need to be improved. This could potentially be achieved by redesigning the spidroin, and/or by changing spinning conditions. Here, we show that several spinning parameters have a significant impact on the fibers’mechanical properties by tensile testing more than 1000 fibers produced under 92 different conditions. The most important factors that contribute to increasing the tensile strength are fast reeling speeds and/or employing post-spin stretching. Stretching in combination with optimized spinning conditions results in fibers with a strength of >250 MPa, which is the highest reported value for fibers spun using natively folded recombinant spidroins that polymerize in response to shear forces and lowered pH.

Impact of Physio-Chemical Spinning Conditions on the Mechanical Properties of Biomimetic Spider Silk Fibers / Schmuck, Benjamin; Greco, Gabriele; Bäcklund, Fredrik G.; Pugno, Nicola M.; Johansson, Jan; Rising, Anna. - In: COMMUNICATIONS MATERIALS. - ISSN 2662-4443. - 2020, 3:1(2022), pp. 1-12. [10.1038/s43246-022-00307-6]

Impact of Physio-Chemical Spinning Conditions on the Mechanical Properties of Biomimetic Spider Silk Fibers

Greco, Gabriele;Pugno, Nicola M.;Johansson, Jan;
2022-01-01

Abstract

Artificial spider silk has emerged as a biobased fiber that could replace some petroleumbased materials that are on the market today. Recent progress made it possible to produce the recombinant spider silk protein NT2RepCT at levels that would make the commercialization of fibers spun from this protein economically feasible. However, for most applications, the mechanical properties of the artificial silk fibers need to be improved. This could potentially be achieved by redesigning the spidroin, and/or by changing spinning conditions. Here, we show that several spinning parameters have a significant impact on the fibers’mechanical properties by tensile testing more than 1000 fibers produced under 92 different conditions. The most important factors that contribute to increasing the tensile strength are fast reeling speeds and/or employing post-spin stretching. Stretching in combination with optimized spinning conditions results in fibers with a strength of >250 MPa, which is the highest reported value for fibers spun using natively folded recombinant spidroins that polymerize in response to shear forces and lowered pH.
2022
1
Schmuck, Benjamin; Greco, Gabriele; Bäcklund, Fredrik G.; Pugno, Nicola M.; Johansson, Jan; Rising, Anna
Impact of Physio-Chemical Spinning Conditions on the Mechanical Properties of Biomimetic Spider Silk Fibers / Schmuck, Benjamin; Greco, Gabriele; Bäcklund, Fredrik G.; Pugno, Nicola M.; Johansson, Jan; Rising, Anna. - In: COMMUNICATIONS MATERIALS. - ISSN 2662-4443. - 2020, 3:1(2022), pp. 1-12. [10.1038/s43246-022-00307-6]
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11572/357161
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