Relationships between supercontraction and mechanical properties of spider silk
Typical spider dragline silk tends to outperform other natural fibres and most man-made filaments. However, even small changes in spinning conditions can have large effects on the mechanical properties of a silk fibre as well as on its water uptake. Absorbed water leads to significant shrinkage in a...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Publishing Group
2005
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| Subjects: |
| _version_ | 1826293306186792960 |
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| author | Liu, Y Shao, Z Vollrath, F |
| author_facet | Liu, Y Shao, Z Vollrath, F |
| author_sort | Liu, Y |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Typical spider dragline silk tends to outperform other natural fibres and most man-made filaments. However, even small changes in spinning conditions can have large effects on the mechanical properties of a silk fibre as well as on its water uptake. Absorbed water leads to significant shrinkage in an unrestrained dragline fibre and reversibly converts the material into a rubber. This process is known as supercontraction and may be a functional adaptation for the silk's role in the spider's web. Supercontraction is thought to be controlled by specific motifs in the silk proteins and to be induced by the entropy-driven recoiling of molecular chains. In analogy, in man-made fibres thermal shrinkage induces changes in mechanical properties attributable to the entropy-driven disorientation of 'unfrozen' molecular chains (as in polyethylene terephthalate) or the 'broken' intermolecular hydrogen bonds (as in nylons). Here we show for <em>Nephila</em> major-ampullate silk how in a biological fibre the spinning conditions affect the interplay between shrinkage and mechanical characteristics. This interaction reveals design principles linking the exceptional properties of silk to its molecular orientation. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T03:28:05Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:b9be3524-b5de-432d-a8a9-1f8a34ea2407 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T03:28:05Z |
| publishDate | 2005 |
| publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:b9be3524-b5de-432d-a8a9-1f8a34ea24072022-03-27T05:05:10ZRelationships between supercontraction and mechanical properties of spider silkJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:b9be3524-b5de-432d-a8a9-1f8a34ea2407Zoological sciencesEnglishOxford University Research Archive - ValetNature Publishing Group2005Liu, YShao, ZVollrath, FTypical spider dragline silk tends to outperform other natural fibres and most man-made filaments. However, even small changes in spinning conditions can have large effects on the mechanical properties of a silk fibre as well as on its water uptake. Absorbed water leads to significant shrinkage in an unrestrained dragline fibre and reversibly converts the material into a rubber. This process is known as supercontraction and may be a functional adaptation for the silk's role in the spider's web. Supercontraction is thought to be controlled by specific motifs in the silk proteins and to be induced by the entropy-driven recoiling of molecular chains. In analogy, in man-made fibres thermal shrinkage induces changes in mechanical properties attributable to the entropy-driven disorientation of 'unfrozen' molecular chains (as in polyethylene terephthalate) or the 'broken' intermolecular hydrogen bonds (as in nylons). Here we show for <em>Nephila</em> major-ampullate silk how in a biological fibre the spinning conditions affect the interplay between shrinkage and mechanical characteristics. This interaction reveals design principles linking the exceptional properties of silk to its molecular orientation. |
| spellingShingle | Zoological sciences Liu, Y Shao, Z Vollrath, F Relationships between supercontraction and mechanical properties of spider silk |
| title | Relationships between supercontraction and mechanical properties of spider silk |
| title_full | Relationships between supercontraction and mechanical properties of spider silk |
| title_fullStr | Relationships between supercontraction and mechanical properties of spider silk |
| title_full_unstemmed | Relationships between supercontraction and mechanical properties of spider silk |
| title_short | Relationships between supercontraction and mechanical properties of spider silk |
| title_sort | relationships between supercontraction and mechanical properties of spider silk |
| topic | Zoological sciences |
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