Related papers: Natural Spider Silk Nanofibrils Produced by Assemb…
Living systems are built of multiscale-composites: materials formed of components with different properties that are assembled in complex micro- and nano-structures. Such biological multiscale-composites often show outstanding physical…
The spider silk is one of the most interesting bio-materials investigated in the last years. One of the main reasons that brought scientists to study this organized system is its high level of resistance if compared to other artificial…
Spider silk is a remarkable example of bio-material with superior mechanical characteristics. Its multilevel structural organization of dragline and viscid silk leads to unusual and tunable properties, extensively studied from a…
Here, we report the production of silk incorporating graphene and carbon nanotubes directly by spider spinning, after spraying spiders with the corresponding aqueous dispersions. We observe a significant increment of the mechanical…
Spider capture silk is a biomaterial with both high strength and high elasticity, but the structural design principle underlying these remarkable properties is still unknown. It was revealed recently by atomic force microscopy that, an…
This paper demonstrates a possible new microfiber bio near field lens that uses minor ampullate spider silk,spun from the Nephila edulis spider, to create a real time image of a surface using near field optical techniques. The microfiber…
Spider silk is a remarkable biomaterial with exceptional stiffness, strength, and toughness stemming from a unique microstructure. While recent studies show that silk fibers exhibit plasticity, hysteresis, and recovery under cyclic loading,…
We deduce a microstructure inspired model for humidity and temperature effects on the mechanical response of spider silks, modelled as a composite material with a hard crystalline and a soft amorphous region. Water molecules decrease the…
Nanofibrillated cellulose, a polymer that can be obtained from one of the most abundant biopolymers in Nature, is being increasingly explored due to its outstanding properties for packaging and device applications. Still, open challenges in…
Spider dragline silk is one of the toughest materials known and understanding the hierarchical structure is a critical component in the efforts to connect structure to function. In this paper, we take the first step in elucidating the…
Spider silks are remarkable materials characterized by superb mechanical properties such as strength, extensibility and lightweightedness. Yet, to date, limited models are available to fully explore sequence-property relationships for…
Soft stretchable materials are key for arising technologies such as stretchable electronics or batteries, smart textiles, biomedical devices, tissue engineering and soft robotics. Recent attempts to design such materials, via e.g.…
An essential element in the web-trap architecture, the capture silk spun by ecribellate orb spiders consists of glue droplets sitting astride a silk filament. Mechanically this thread presents a mixed solid-liquid behavior unknown to date.…
In this letter, we adopt a new approach combining theoretical modeling with silk stretching measurements to explore the mystery of the structures between silkworm and spider silks, leading to the differences in mechanical response against…
The remarkable mechanical properties of spider silk, including its tensile strength and extensibility, are primarily governed by the repetitive regions of the proteins that constitute the fiber, the major ampullate spidroins (MaSps).…
Thanks to the spontaneous interaction between noble metals and biological scaffolds, nanomaterials with unique features can be achieved following relatively straightforward and cost-efficient synthetic procedures. Here, plasmonic silver…
Background: Nanoscale composition of silk defining its unique properties via a hierarchical structural anisotropy has to be analysed at the highest spatial resolution of tens-of-nanometers corresponding to the size of fibrils made of…
Synthetic bio-molecular spiders with "legs" made of single-stranded segments of DNA can move on a surface which is also covered by single-stranded segments of DNA complementary to the leg DNA. In experimental realizations, when a leg…
The ability to form silk films on semiconductors, metals, and oxides or as free-standing membranes has motivated research into silk-based electronic, optical, and biomedical devices. However, the inherent disorder of native silk limits…
In tissue engineering, we seek to address comprehensive tissue repair and regeneration needs. Aligned nanofibers have emerged as powerful and versatile tools, attributable to their structural and biochemical congruence with the natural…