Rheological characterization of silk solutions

Abstract

Spider silk with its intriguing mechanical properties has a high potential for numerous applications in technology and industry. However, the production of silk fibers from regenerated or recombinant silk solutions is as of today limited by the requirement of strong chaotropic agents and chemical postspin treatments, yielding fibers with weaker mechanical properties than their native counterparts. Here, rheological data of regenerated Bombyx mori fibroin and aqueous silk solutions of recombinant spider silk protein eADF3 indicate that the presence of kosmotropic salts, and elevated temperatures result in solution behavior more alike that of a native silk spinning dope. The authors believe that their findings are helpful for the successful silk spinning from recombinant or regenerated silk solutions.

Greener materials

“…1 The second details the rheological characterisation of silk solutions, expanding on our understanding of the properties and processing of this intriguing material, pioneered by Thomas Scheibel's team in the Lehrstuhl Biomaterialien at the Universität Bayreuth. 2 The Mecerreyes' laboratory at the University of the Basque Country present their work on new odourless pressure-sensitive adhesives based on renewable protic ionic liquid derived latexes 3 while Brian Wagner's group at the University of Prince Edward Island (full disclosure: I'm a co-author) presents an evaluation of different synthetic strategies to biodegradable star-shaped polymers with cyclodextrin cores. 4 Finally, Chi-Sun Poon discloses the optimisation of waste cathode ray tube funnel glass in concrete blocks by altering aggregate-to-cement ratios.…”