Spider silk inspired fibers and its archetypal properties

Abstract

Spider silks display different types of archetypal properties that can be used for variety of applications in real life. Thanks to their hierarchical structural arrangement that open doors for the development of materials with interesting properties. Spiders can produce up to seven different types of silk fibers with varying mechanical properties and function to support their survival. Some of their most characteristic properties that do not exist in other natural fibers are flat-stress strain behavior (tubuliform silk), supercontraction (dragline), and water collection (capture silk). It is found that these smart properties are influenced by β-sheet alignment, amino acid composition and fiber morphology respectively. These interesting properties can serve the requirements for smart functionality of materials for various applications. However, unlike silkworm silk spiders cannot be farmed due to their cannibalistic nature. This limits utilization of spider silks in their natural form for real world applications. This research project aims to exploit and reproduce the archetypal properties of the natural spider silk fibers using artificial methods. The highlights would be shed on the production of spider silk like artificial fibers using: a, polymer-regenerated silk blending to achieve tubuliform silk inspired flat tensile stress strain behavior; b, synthesis of engineered recombinant spider silk proteins and spin them biomimetically to realize supercontraction inspired shape and stress memory properties; c, altering the fiber morphology to reproduce spider capture silk like water collection properties.