Development of a Process for the Spinning of Synthetic Spider Silk.

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 stren

SUBMITTER: Copeland CG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4826064 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature