Enhanced silk protein material having improved mechanical performance and method of forming the same.

Abstract

The invention provides an enhanced silk fiber rivaling spider silk in mechanical performance, in combination with a very low-cost method for producing it from the usual silkworms. The method provides for the simple application of an electric field which results in an enhancement of over 40% in the strength, and of 200% in the breaking energy with respect to ordinary silkworm silk. The critical elasticity is enhanced to the level of the dragline spider silk. The provided enhanced silk protein material has the same protein primary structure, fiber diameter and length of the customary silk. The method of formation offers the following advantages in comparison to other methods available in the prior art. Industrial scale production can be readily and cost-effectively achieved, given the wide-range availability of silkworms. The provided method relies largely on the present standard production processes of silkworm silk, and hence a low level of investment is required. Since no additional chemicals are required, the provided method is environmentally friendly.

Description

[0001] cross reference [0002] This application claims the benefit of USPTO Application Serial No. 60 / 843,999. technical field [0003] The present invention relates to a proteinaceous material providing improved properties, such as protein fibers, and in particular to a reinforcing silk fiber providing improved mechanical properties and a method of forming the same. Background technique [0004] Natural proteinaceous materials such as silk fibers produced by invertebrate species include secretions of fibrous proteins. Various methods have therefore been further proposed to improve the mechanical properties of silk protein materials. These attempts have the drawback of producing silk protein material expensively, in inconvenient forms, or in commercially unattractive quantities. Generally, the prior art has focused on the various reeling protocols that pull the silk fiber out of the animal or otherwise forcefully as it is spun externally into fibers. For example, silkwor...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, the limited availability of spider silk has led to an urgent market need for the production of artificial spider silk

Although many efforts have been made to achieve this goal, notably including genetic modification, not much progress has been documented in the current extensive prior art

Images