Phys.org September 18, 2024 A team of researchers in the US (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, University of Washington, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, North Carolina State University) developed highly ordered two-dimensional silk fibroin (SF) films grown epitaxially on van der Waals (vdW) substrates. They showed that the films consisted of lamellae of SF molecules that exhibited the same secondary structure as the nanocrystallites of native silk. Increasing the SF concentration resulted in multilayers that grew either by direct assembly of SF molecules into the lamellae or, at high concentrations, along a two-step pathway beginning with a disordered monolayer that crystallizes. They […]
Category Archives: Biomaterial
Development of new biomaterial with super strength inspired by limpets
Phys.org July 7, 2022 The small aquatic snail-like mollusks use a tongue bristling with tiny, microscopic teeth to scrape food off rocks and into their mouths. These teeth contain a hard yet flexible composite, which in 2015 was found to be the strongest known biologically occurring material, far stronger than spider silk and comparable to man-made substances, including carbon fiber and Kevlar. An international team of researchers (UK, Poland USA – industry, Switzerland) has replicated the limpet tooth developmental processes ex vivo, where isolated limpet tissue and cells in culture generated new biomimetic structures. Transcriptomic analysis of each developmental stage […]