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Structural Comparison of Various Silkworm Silks: An Insight into the Structure-Property Relationship

Version 2 2024-06-06, 06:49
Version 1 2018-02-21, 16:05
journal contribution
posted on 2024-06-06, 06:49 authored by C Guo, J Zhang, JS Jordan, X Wang, RW Henning, JL Yarger
Silkworm silk has attracted considerable attention in recent years due to its excellent mechanical properties, biocompatibility, and promising applications in biomedical sector. However, a clear understanding of the molecular structure and the relationship between the excellent mechanical properties and the silk protein sequences are still lacking. This study carries out a thorough comparative structural analysis of silk fibers of four silkworm species ( Bombyx mori, Antheraea pernyi, Samia cynthia ricini, and Antheraea assamensis). A combination of characterization techniques including scanning electron microscopy, mechanical test, synchrotron X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and NMR spectroscopy was applied to investigate the morphologies, mechanical properties, amino acid compositions, nanoscale organizations, and molecular structures of various silkworm silks. Furthermore, the structure-property relationship is discussed by correlating the molecular structural features of silks with their mechanical properties. The results show that a high content of β-sheet structures and a high crystallinity would result in a high Young's modulus for silkworm silk fibers. Additionally, a low content of β-sheet structures would result in a high extensibility.

History

Journal

Biomacromolecules

Volume

19

Pagination

906-917

Location

United States

ISSN

1525-7797

eISSN

1526-4602

Language

English

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2018, American Chemical Society

Issue

3

Publisher

AMER CHEMICAL SOC