Silkworm and spider silk electrospinning: a review

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Biotechnology
• Textile Engineering

Background:

• Growing demand for sustainable biopolymer textiles driven by fossil fuel and plastic pollution concerns.
• Traditional use of silk for millennia, now re-emerging with advanced spinning technologies.
• Arthropod silks offer unique properties like resistance, elasticity, and toughness for biomaterial applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review silk production methods from silkworms and spiders.
• To present biotechnological procedures for obtaining silk proteins and preparing electrospinning dopes.
• To discuss the mechanical properties of electrospun silk mats and compare biological and electrospinning techniques.

Main Methods:

• Review of silk production by *Bombyx mori*, *Aranea diadematus*, and *Nephila Clavipes*.
• Description of biotechnological procedures for silk protein extraction.
• Preparation and electrospinning of silk polymer dopes for scaffold creation.

Main Results:

• Silk's unique properties (low density, degradability, versatility) offer advantages over synthetics.
• Electrospinning enables the creation of silk nonwoven mats with nanoscale structural control.
• Electrospun silk scaffolds show potential in regenerative medicine, drug delivery, and filtration.

Conclusions:

• Electrospinning is a viable high-tech method for producing silk-based biomaterials.
• The review highlights parallels between natural biological spinning and artificial electrospinning processes.
• Silk biomaterials present a sustainable alternative to conventional synthetic materials.