Spider silk is one of the most fascinating natural materials, owing to its outstanding mechanical properties. In fact, it is able to combine usually self-excluding properties, like strength and toughness that synthetic fibers fail to replicate. Here, we report a method to further enhance the already excellent mechanical properties of spider's silk, producing nanocomposite fibers where the matrix of spider silk is reinforced with C₆₀ molecules. These are deposited by Supersonic Molecular Beam Epitaxy (SuMBE) and are able to efficiently interact with silk, as evidenced by XPS analysis. As a consequence, upon proper adjustment of the fullerene kinetic energy, the treated fibers show improved strength, Young's modulus and toughness.

蜘蛛丝由于其出色的机械性能而成为最迷人的天然材料之一。实际上，它能够结合通常自我排斥的特性，例如合成纤维无法复制的强度和韧性。在这里，我们报告了一种进一步增强蜘蛛丝本已优异的机械性能，生产纳米复合纤维的方法，其中蜘蛛丝的基质被C ₆₀分子增强。这些由超音速分子束外延（SuMBE）沉积，并能够有效地与丝绸相互作用，如XPS分析所证明。结果，通过适当地调节富勒烯动能，处理后的纤维显示出改善的强度，杨氏模量和韧性。