Producing artificial spider silk lighter than cotton, more durable than steel

For a long time, spider silk has made a strong impression because of its softness and toughness. But until now scientists have been able to successfully synthesize artificial spider silk fibers.

This work was done by a team at Washington University (Saint Louis, Missouri, USA) using bacteria to synthesize spider silk proteins . The most difficult thing is that the proteins have to be large, because the bigger the protein, the more flexible and durable the new thread. According to Christopher Bowen, a member of the research team, to make this thread, a long DNA molecule needs to be combined with a short sequence repeated hundreds of times.

Natural spider silk yarn has soft but durable properties.

But there is a kind of bacteria that tends to divide these chains. As explained by Fuzhong Zhang, the head of the project, it is necessary to 'introduce' the spider silk protein a small string that has been marked and through a chemical reaction, they react by how to combine with other proteins carries the same sign.

As a result, the researchers obtained a spider silk protein twice the size of the protein in previous experiments, and thus converted into fibers with the qualities of natural spider silk. Therefore, the next step is to just put into the process of industrialization.

The first feature of this type is more stable than kevlar, which is a registered trademark for the para-aramid synthetic fiber developed by DuPont in 1965. In 1970, this high-strength material was used. instead of steel in racing tires and due to 5 times the strength of steel, but also very flexible, it is often used as a material for bulletproof armor.

And the next characteristic is that this artificial spider silk has a density smaller than that of cotton or nylon, which is most attractive when woven into silk.

Washington University artificial spider silk thread.

These two characteristics, therefore, have caused many questions for the scientific community. Therefore, TS. Frauke Gräter at the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Research (Germany) and his colleagues unravel the question by analyzing the molecular structure of this thread.

The analytical results show that the molecular structure of the filament has been replaced by crystalline components making it more durable with amorphous components making it softer. So the next thing is just to put it into industrialization.