Natural silk as a biomimetic ideal for structural polymers
Silks have attracted much attention in recent years, not only for the extremely attractive combination of strength and toughness in some spider silks, but also more generally as model natural fibres that are spun under environmentally benign conditions from aqueous solution and as models for other natural structural polymers. Silks display huge diversity at both the structural and physical level, and both aspects are experimentally accessible for investigation ex vivo, which makes them very attractive for understanding structure-property-function relations in biomaterials. Here, I will discuss the relationships between structure and properties in silks, and show how the wide range of mechanical properties can be calculated in terms of relatively simple interlinked structural parameters such as order, morphology scaling, and hydration. These parameters can be linked to the role of specific peptide segments in controlling the property balance in any silk that has evolved to enhance survival chances. I will show how these models for silks can be applied to other polymers to provide quantitative tools for polymer design. I will also discuss important aspects of silk processing from aqueous solution to dry fibres through rheology and controlled denaturing during the spinning process.
PORTER David VOLLRATH Fritz
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
国际会议
2009 International Conference on Advanced Fibers and Polymer Materials(2009年先进纤维与聚合物材料国际学术会议)
上海
英文
835-838
2009-10-21（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）