Artificial spider silk from ion-doped and twisted core-sheath hydrogel fibres

Yuanyuan Dou, Zhen-Pei Wang, Wenqian He, Tianjiao Jia, Zhuangjian Liu, Pingchuan Sun, Kai Wen, Enlai Gao, Xiang Zhou, Xiaoyu Hu, Jingjing Li, Shaoli Fang, Dong Qian and Zunfeng Liu ()
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Yuanyuan Dou: State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, College of Pharmacy, Key Laboratory of Functional Polymer Materials, Nankai University
Zhen-Pei Wang: Institute of High Performance Computing, A*STAR Research Entities
Wenqian He: State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, College of Pharmacy, Key Laboratory of Functional Polymer Materials, Nankai University
Tianjiao Jia: State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, College of Pharmacy, Key Laboratory of Functional Polymer Materials, Nankai University
Zhuangjian Liu: Institute of High Performance Computing, A*STAR Research Entities
Pingchuan Sun: State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, College of Pharmacy, Key Laboratory of Functional Polymer Materials, Nankai University
Kai Wen: State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, College of Pharmacy, Key Laboratory of Functional Polymer Materials, Nankai University
Enlai Gao: Department of Engineering Mechanics, School of Civil Engineering, Wuhan University
Xiang Zhou: Department of Science, China Pharmaceutical University
Xiaoyu Hu: State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, College of Pharmacy, Key Laboratory of Functional Polymer Materials, Nankai University
Jingjing Li: State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, College of Pharmacy, Key Laboratory of Functional Polymer Materials, Nankai University
Shaoli Fang: Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute, University of Texas at Dallas
Dong Qian: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at Dallas
Zunfeng Liu: State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, College of Pharmacy, Key Laboratory of Functional Polymer Materials, Nankai University

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Spider silks show unique combinations of strength, toughness, extensibility, and energy absorption. To date, it has been difficult to obtain spider silk-like mechanical properties using non-protein approaches. Here, we report on an artificial spider silk produced by the water-evaporation-induced self-assembly of hydrogel fibre made from polyacrylic acid and silica nanoparticles. The artificial spider silk consists of hierarchical core-sheath structured hydrogel fibres, which are reinforced by ion doping and twist insertion. The fibre exhibits a tensile strength of 895 MPa and a stretchability of 44.3%, achieving mechanical properties comparable to spider silk. The material also presents a high toughness of 370 MJ m−3 and a damping capacity of 95%. The hydrogel fibre shows only ~1/9 of the impact force of cotton yarn with negligible rebound when used for impact reduction applications. This work opens an avenue towards the fabrication of artificial spider silk with applications in kinetic energy buffering and shock-absorbing.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-13257-4

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