Work

The Cribellate Nanofibrils of the Southern House Spider: Extremely Thin Natural Silks with Outstanding Extensibility

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Cribellate silks, produced by ancient spiders, are fascinating because they feature a highly sophisticated, 3D hierarchical structure consisting of filaments with different diameters and shapes. Here, the smallest and thinnest constituents of the cribellate silk are investigated: nanofibrils that form a dense mesh that is supported by larger fibers. Analysis of their structure via atomic force and transmission electron microscopies shows that they are flattened fibrils, only ≈5 nm thick — thinner than any other natural spider silk fibrils previously reported. In this work, the first mechanical tensile testing experiments on these fibrils are carried out, which reveals that the fibrils show an outstanding extensibility of at least 1100%, almost twice as much as the most stretchable spider silk previously reported. Based on these extraordinary findings, this work significantly expands the parameter space of materials properties attainable by spider silks and provides further insights into their nanomechanics.

Source: Advanced Functional Materials

DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202408409

Authors: Jacob Silliman, Sean R. Koebley, Hannes C. Schniepp

Institution: William & Mary

Language: English

Topic: Silk-based biomaterials and applications

Subfield: Biomaterials

Field: Materials Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $5,510

Funders: National Science Foundation, Division of Materials Research