Issue 27, 2016

Glass transitions in native silk fibres studied by dynamic mechanical thermal analysis

Abstract

Silks are a family of semi-crystalline structural materials, spun naturally by insects, spiders and even crustaceans. Compared to the characteristic β-sheet crystalline structure in silks, the non-crystalline structure and its composition deserves more attention as it is equally critical to the filaments' high toughness and strength. Here we further unravel the structure–property relationship in silks using Dynamic Mechanical Thermal Analysis (DMTA). This technique allows us to examine the most important structural relaxation event of the disordered structure the disordered structure, the glass transition (GT), in native silk fibres of the lepidopteran Bombyx mori and Antheraea pernyi and the spider Nephila edulis. The measured glass transition temperature Tg, loss tangent tan δ and dynamic storage modulus are quantitatively modelled based on Group Interaction Modelling (GIM). The “variability” issue in native silks can be conveniently explained by the different degrees of structural disorder as revealed by DMTA. The new insights will facilitate a more comprehensive understanding of the structure–property relations for a wide range of biopolymers.

Graphical abstract: Glass transitions in native silk fibres studied by dynamic mechanical thermal analysis

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
05 jan. 2016
Accepted
09 jún. 2016
First published
09 jún. 2016
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Soft Matter, 2016,12, 5926-5936

Glass transitions in native silk fibres studied by dynamic mechanical thermal analysis

J. Guan, Y. Wang, B. Mortimer, C. Holland, Z. Shao, D. Porter and F. Vollrath, Soft Matter, 2016, 12, 5926 DOI: 10.1039/C6SM00019C

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