| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2022 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
BioNano Interfaces and Engineering Applications
|
| Presentation Title |
Reverse Engineering Spider Silk by Disassembly and Assembly |
| Author(s) |
Dinidu Perera, Linxuan Li, Qijue Wang, Hannes C. Schniepp |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Hannes C. Schniepp |
| Abstract Scope |
Spider silk combines outstanding strength and toughness with biocompatibility and light weight, thus outperforming some of the best synthetic materials. Despite extensive research, comprehensive experimental evidence of the formation and morphology of the internal structure of spider silk is still limited and controversially discussed. We used mechanical exfoliation to completely exfoliate spider silk for the first time. This showed that the silk of the golden orb-weaver is entirely composed of parallel, 10 nm-diameter nanofibrils featuring a particular morphology. Furthermore, we show that the silk protein possesses an intrinsic mechanism to form nanofibrils of the same morphology via shear-induced self-assembly, which can be easily triggered in vitro. This knowledge will help understand the fundamentals of this exceptional material, paving the way for the realization of silk-based high-performance materials. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
| Keywords |
Biomaterials, Mechanical Properties, Nanotechnology |