Cargando…

Ultrafine and High-Strength Silk Fibers Secreted by Bimolter Silkworms

Ultrafine fibers are widely employed because of their lightness, softness, and warmth retention. Although silkworm silk is one of the most applied natural silks, it is coarse and difficult to transform into ultrafine fibers. Thus, to obtain ultrafine high-performance silk fibers, we employed anti-ju...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Guo, Kaiyu, Zhang, Xiaolu, Dong, Zhaoming, Ni, Yuhui, Chen, Yuqing, Zhang, Yan, Li, Haoyun, Xia, Qingyou, Zhao, Ping
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7693878/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33143336
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym12112537
_version_ 1783614847295946752
author Guo, Kaiyu
Zhang, Xiaolu
Dong, Zhaoming
Ni, Yuhui
Chen, Yuqing
Zhang, Yan
Li, Haoyun
Xia, Qingyou
Zhao, Ping
author_facet Guo, Kaiyu
Zhang, Xiaolu
Dong, Zhaoming
Ni, Yuhui
Chen, Yuqing
Zhang, Yan
Li, Haoyun
Xia, Qingyou
Zhao, Ping
author_sort Guo, Kaiyu
collection PubMed
description Ultrafine fibers are widely employed because of their lightness, softness, and warmth retention. Although silkworm silk is one of the most applied natural silks, it is coarse and difficult to transform into ultrafine fibers. Thus, to obtain ultrafine high-performance silk fibers, we employed anti-juvenile hormones in this study to induce bimolter silkworms. We found that the bimolter cocoons were composed of densely packed thin fibers and small apertures, wherein the silk diameter was 54.9% less than that of trimolter silk. Further analysis revealed that the bimolter silk was cleaner and lighter than the control silk. In addition, it was stronger (739 MPa versus 497 MPa) and more stiffness (i.e., a higher Young’s modulus) than the trimolter silk. FTIR and X-ray diffraction results revealed that the excellent mechanical properties of bimolter silk can be attributed to the higher β-sheet content and crystallinity. Chitin staining of the anterior silk gland suggested that the lumen is narrower in bimolters, which may lead to the formation of greater numbers of β-sheet structures in the silk. Therefore, this study reveals the relationship between the structures and mechanical properties of bimolter silk and provides a valuable reference for producing high-strength and ultrafine silk fibers.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7693878
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-76938782020-11-28 Ultrafine and High-Strength Silk Fibers Secreted by Bimolter Silkworms Guo, Kaiyu Zhang, Xiaolu Dong, Zhaoming Ni, Yuhui Chen, Yuqing Zhang, Yan Li, Haoyun Xia, Qingyou Zhao, Ping Polymers (Basel) Article Ultrafine fibers are widely employed because of their lightness, softness, and warmth retention. Although silkworm silk is one of the most applied natural silks, it is coarse and difficult to transform into ultrafine fibers. Thus, to obtain ultrafine high-performance silk fibers, we employed anti-juvenile hormones in this study to induce bimolter silkworms. We found that the bimolter cocoons were composed of densely packed thin fibers and small apertures, wherein the silk diameter was 54.9% less than that of trimolter silk. Further analysis revealed that the bimolter silk was cleaner and lighter than the control silk. In addition, it was stronger (739 MPa versus 497 MPa) and more stiffness (i.e., a higher Young’s modulus) than the trimolter silk. FTIR and X-ray diffraction results revealed that the excellent mechanical properties of bimolter silk can be attributed to the higher β-sheet content and crystallinity. Chitin staining of the anterior silk gland suggested that the lumen is narrower in bimolters, which may lead to the formation of greater numbers of β-sheet structures in the silk. Therefore, this study reveals the relationship between the structures and mechanical properties of bimolter silk and provides a valuable reference for producing high-strength and ultrafine silk fibers. MDPI 2020-10-30 /pmc/articles/PMC7693878/ /pubmed/33143336 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym12112537 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Guo, Kaiyu
Zhang, Xiaolu
Dong, Zhaoming
Ni, Yuhui
Chen, Yuqing
Zhang, Yan
Li, Haoyun
Xia, Qingyou
Zhao, Ping
Ultrafine and High-Strength Silk Fibers Secreted by Bimolter Silkworms
title Ultrafine and High-Strength Silk Fibers Secreted by Bimolter Silkworms
title_full Ultrafine and High-Strength Silk Fibers Secreted by Bimolter Silkworms
title_fullStr Ultrafine and High-Strength Silk Fibers Secreted by Bimolter Silkworms
title_full_unstemmed Ultrafine and High-Strength Silk Fibers Secreted by Bimolter Silkworms
title_short Ultrafine and High-Strength Silk Fibers Secreted by Bimolter Silkworms
title_sort ultrafine and high-strength silk fibers secreted by bimolter silkworms
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7693878/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33143336
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym12112537
work_keys_str_mv AT guokaiyu ultrafineandhighstrengthsilkfiberssecretedbybimoltersilkworms
AT zhangxiaolu ultrafineandhighstrengthsilkfiberssecretedbybimoltersilkworms
AT dongzhaoming ultrafineandhighstrengthsilkfiberssecretedbybimoltersilkworms
AT niyuhui ultrafineandhighstrengthsilkfiberssecretedbybimoltersilkworms
AT chenyuqing ultrafineandhighstrengthsilkfiberssecretedbybimoltersilkworms
AT zhangyan ultrafineandhighstrengthsilkfiberssecretedbybimoltersilkworms
AT lihaoyun ultrafineandhighstrengthsilkfiberssecretedbybimoltersilkworms
AT xiaqingyou ultrafineandhighstrengthsilkfiberssecretedbybimoltersilkworms
AT zhaoping ultrafineandhighstrengthsilkfiberssecretedbybimoltersilkworms