Biomimetic fibers made of recombinant spidroins with the same toughness as natural spider silk

Abstract

Using a self-assembly of recombinant spidroins, biomimetic spinning dopes are produced and wet-spun into fibers. Upon varying the molecular design of the underlying recombinant spidroins, the influence of the amino- and carboxy-terminal domains, as well as the size of the repetitive core domain on fiber mechanics, is determined. Fiber toughness upon biomimetic processing equals and even slightly exceeds that of natural ones.

Keywords: biomimetic materials; phase separation; spider silk; toughness.