Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

Silks have a great potential as sustainable, ecologically benign commercial polymers. Here we discuss this fascinating bio-material by merging the biologist's with the polymer scientist's views i.e. combine insights into the characterisation and understanding of evolved structure, property and function in natural silk proteins with the broad scope of applied disciplines ranging from molecular modelling to rheology and mechanical testing. We conclude that silk cannot be defined simply by only its origin or material composition but any meaningful designation must include the key feature of formation by extrusion spinning. We further conclude that silk 'spinning' largely depends on a highly specific denaturation process dependent on competing molecular-level interactions of hydrogen bonding between water and main chain amide groups in the silk protein chains. Finally we conclude that silks have a bright future not only as archetype models to guide our understanding of highly adapted and energy efficient bio-polymers but also as prototype models to guide the design of totally novel polymer systems. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Original publication

DOI

10.1016/j.polymer.2009.09.068

Type

Journal article

Journal

Polymer

Publication Date

16/11/2009

Volume

50

Pages

5623 - 5632