Preparation and characterization of Nephila clavipes tubuliform silk gut

• Published in: Soft matter Vol. 15; no. 14; pp. 296 - 297
• Main Authors: Ruiz, Víctor, Jiang, Ping, Müller, Claudia, Jorge, Inmaculada, Vázquez, Jesús, Ridruejo, Álvaro, Aznar-Cervantes, Salvador D, Cenis, José Luis, Messeguer-Olmo, Luis, Elices, Manuel, Guinea, Gustavo Víctor, Pérez-Rigueiro, José
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Royal Society of Chemistry 03.04.2019
• Subjects: Drying; Fibers; Fourier transforms; Infrared spectroscopy; Mechanical properties; Nephila clavipes; Silk; Silk gland; Spiders; Strain; Submerging; Tensile properties; Tensile tests; X-ray diffraction
• ISSN: 1744-683X; 1744-6848
• DOI: 10.1039/c9sm00212j

Tubuliform silk glands were dissected from Nephila clavipes spiders, and silk gut fibers were produced by immersing the glands in a mild acid solution and subsequent stretching. The tensile properties of the as produced fibers were obtained through tensile tests, and the stress-strain curves were compared with those of naturally spun tubuliform silk fibers. The influence on the mechanical properties of the fibers after immersion in water and drying was also discerned. The microstructure of the silk guts was obtained by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). It was found that the stress-strain curves of the stretched tubuliform silk guts concur with those of their natural counterparts (tubuliform silk fibers). Tubuliform silk gut shows intrinsic properties comparable to those of natural spider tubuliform silk fibers, but is obtained with an alternative spinning procedure that yields fibers with a cross-sectional area four orders of magnitude larger than that of the natural material.