Spider silk reinforced by graphene or carbon nanotubes
Source abstract
Abstract
Abstract Spider silk has promising mechanical properties, since it conjugates high strength (~1.5 GPa) and toughness (~150 J g −1 ). Here, we report the production of silk incorporating graphene and carbon nanotubes by spider spinning, after feeding spiders with the corresponding aqueous dispersions. We observe an increment of the mechanical properties with respect to pristine silk, up to a fracture strength ~5.4 GPa and a toughness modulus ~1570 J g −1 . This approach could be extended to other biological systems and lead to a new class of artificially modified biological, or ‘bionic’, materials.
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Research context
OpenAlex topics: Silk-based biomaterials and applications · Biochemical and Structural Characterization · Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
University of Trento
Università di Torino
University of Cambridge
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
Bruno Kessler Foundation and Trento Institute for Fundamental Physics and Applications
Charles University
Queen Mary University of London
Italian Space Agency
Funding
Seventh Framework Programme · H2020 European Research Council · H2020 Future and Emerging Technologies · Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
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