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Microfluidic Dry-spinning and Characterization of Regenerated Silk Fibroin Fibers
Published on: September 4, 2017
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Nanoconfined crystallites toughen artificial silk
Hui Pan1, Yaopeng Zhang, Huili Shao
1State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China. zyp@dhu.edu.cn.
Journal of Materials Chemistry. B
|April 9, 2020
Summary
Researchers developed a simple method to enhance artificial silk toughness by adding nanoanatase (TiO2). The resulting composite silk fibers demonstrated superior toughness compared to silkworm silks, offering a promising biomimetic material.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Biomaterials Engineering
- Polymer Science
Background:
- Spider dragline silk is renowned for its exceptional mechanical properties, particularly high toughness.
- Biomimetic spinning of artificial silk has been a long-standing research goal.
- Developing artificial silks with properties comparable to natural spider silk remains challenging.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a simple, cost-effective method for significantly enhancing the toughness of artificial silk.
- To investigate the structure-property relationships in artificial silk-nanoanatase composites.
- To explore the potential of nanoanatase as a reinforcing agent in biomimetic silk fibers.
Main Methods:
- Compositing regenerated silk fibroin (RSF) with nanoanatase (TiO2) using a simple method.
- Characterizing the mechanical properties, specifically toughness (breaking energy), of the hybrid fibers.
- Analyzing the structural changes in the RSF-TiO2 fibers using techniques to determine secondary structure content (α-helix, β-sheet), crystallite size, and crystallinity.
Main Results:
- The artificial silk composited with nanoanatase exhibited significantly enhanced toughness, with breaking energy exceeding that of silkworm silks (93.1 ± 27.1 MJ m⁻³).
- Strong interfacial interactions, including coordination complexes (Ti-protein) and hydrogen bonds (O-H), were observed between nanoanatase and the fibroin matrix.
- Structural analysis revealed that RSF-TiO2 fibers had higher α-helix/random coil content, lower β-sheet content, smaller crystallites, and lower crystallinity compared to pure RSF fibers.
Conclusions:
- A simple and economical method for toughening artificial silk through nanoanatase compositing was successfully demonstrated.
- The enhanced toughness is attributed to strong interfacial interactions and structural modifications within the fibroin matrix.
- A nanoconfined crystallite toughening mechanism is proposed to explain the improved mechanical performance of the hybrid silk fibers.
