Observations of 3 nm Silk Nanofibrils Exfoliated from Natural Silkworm Silk Fibers,ACS Materials Letters

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Observations of 3 nm Silk Nanofibrils Exfoliated from Natural Silkworm Silk Fibers
ACS Materials Letters ( IF 9.6 ) Pub Date : 2020-01-09 , DOI: 10.1021/acsmaterialslett.9b00461
Qi Wang _{1,

2} , Shengjie Ling _{3,

4,

5} , Quanzhou Yao ₆ , Qunyang Li ₆ , Debo Hu ₇ , Qing Dai ₇ , David A. Weitz ₂ , David L. Kaplan ₄ , Markus J. Buehler ₅ , Yingying Zhang ₁

Affiliation

Silk fibers are one of the most attractive natural materials that exhibit enchanting luster and superior mechanical properties. Exploring the unique hierarchical architecture structures of natural silk fibers is the basis to understanding these unique properties. Here, we report observations of 3.1 ± 0.8 nm silk nanofibrils and 3.7 ± 0.9 Å silk molecule chains exfoliated from natural silkworm silk fibers. Interestingly, the individual nanofibrils and protein chains show periodic diameters fluctuating along their axes. We further find that the thicker regions are relatively softer and the thinner regions are stiffer, and these can be assigned to alternatively distributed α-helix and β-sheet domains, respectively. Based on these observations, we proposed a refined structure model of natural silk, which ranges from the molecular level to the fiber scale. These findings provide new opportunities to understand and exploit the unique structure–property relationships found in natural silk fibers, including inspiring the design of new artificial materials.

中文翻译：

天然蚕丝纤维剥落的3 nm蚕丝纳米纤维的观察

丝纤维是最具吸引力的天然材料之一，具有迷人的光泽和出色的机械性能。探索天然丝纤维的独特层次结构是了解这些独特属性的基础。在这里，我们报告观察到从天然蚕丝纤维剥落的3.1±0.8 nm蚕丝纳米原纤维和3.7±0.9Å蚕丝分子链。有趣的是，各个纳米原纤维和蛋白质链显示出周期性的直径沿其轴线波动。我们进一步发现，较厚的区域相对较软，较薄的区域较硬，并且这些区域可以分别分配给交替分布的α-螺旋和β-sheet域。基于这些观察，我们提出了天然丝的精制结构模型，从分子水平到纤维规模。这些发现为理解和利用天然丝纤维中独特的结构－特性关系提供了新的机会，包括启发了新型人造材料的设计。

更新日期：2020-01-10

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