Spinning Spider Silk via Biomimicry

The spinning process evolved in spiders is highly specialized and complex. Many scientists have tried to mimic this system with little success. In attempting to produce a non-biological spinneret prototype, Nexia and its partners have focused on achieving the correct level of shear forces that trigger spider silk proteins to nucleate and form a consistent fibre. In general, the spin dope, which contains spider silk protein, is optimized in concentration and chemical composition. The spin dope is then placed in a chamber, similar to a syringe, to push (extrude) the protein through a very small aperture into a solution bath, which extracts the water from the protein solution stream, thus forming a continuous fibre. The fibre's β-pleated sheets will be roughly aligned at this point. Once extruded from the "spinneret" the fibre is stretched or drawn in the bath, which functions to align further the proteins.

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