Straining flow spinning: production of regenerated silk fibers under a wide range of mild coagulating chemistries

Abstract

In the last few decades there has been increasing interest in the spinning of regenerated silk fibers. Although this research started with the use of harsh chemicals to dissolve and then coagulate silk proteins, it has shifted to biomimetic approaches that allow the use of environmentally friendly chemistries. This shift is not surprising since silk fibers in Nature are spun under extremely mild conditions. In this work we use a biomimetic spinning process called straining flow spinning to spin regenerated silkworm silk fibers. Our results show that straining flow spinning is a versatile technique that allows the spinning of silk fibers using different coagulating systems and provides the possibility of developing an industrially scalable and environmentally friendly spinning process.