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Spider silk reinforced by graphene or carbon nanotubes

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Abstract

© 2017 IOP Publishing Ltd. Spider silk has promising mechanical properties, since it conjugates high strength (~1.5 GPa) and toughness (~150 J g −1 ). Here, we report the production of silk incorporating graphene and carbon nanotubes by spider spinning, after feeding spiders with the corresponding aqueous dispersions. We observe an increment of the mechanical properties with respect to pristine silk, up to a fracture strength ~5.4 GPa and a toughness modulus ~1570 J g −1 . This approach could be extended to other biological systems and lead to a new class of artificially modified biological, or ‘bionic’, materials.

Description

Keywords

40 Engineering, 51 Physical Sciences, 5104 Condensed Matter Physics

Journal Title

2D Materials

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2053-1583
2053-1583

Volume Title

4

Publisher

IOP Publishing
Sponsorship
Royal Society (unknown)
Royal Society (nf080934)
Royal Society (TG102524)
Isaac Newton Trust (MINUTE 726(F))
EPSRC (452)
European Research Council (208948)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/K01711X/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/K017144/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/M507799/1)
European Commission (264694)
European Commission (604391)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/L016087/1)
European Commission Horizon 2020 (H2020) ERC (206409)
European Commission Horizon 2020 (H2020) Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) (696656)
EPSRC (via University of Manchester) (R119256)
European Commission Horizon 2020 (H2020) Societal Challenges (732344)
The Royal Society (uf072943)
The Royal Society (wm090070)
Isaac Newton Trust (1135(N))
Royal Society (516002K5698/kk)
The Royal Society (fi061247)
European Research Council (319277)