title: New secrets of spider silk: exceptionally high thermal conductivity and its abnormal change under stretching.
abstract: Two new significant discoveries are reported: i) the dragline silk of N. clavipes spider has an exceptionally high thermal conductivity: up to 416 W/m·K that beats most materials; ii) contrary to normal materials, its thermal conductivity increases with strain (19% increase under ∼20% strain). These new findings will revolutionize the design of polymer fibers to increase their thermal conductivity by orders of magnitude.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, 50011, USA.
authors.forename: Xiaopeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Guoqing
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Xinwei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D008422:Materials Testing; D010316:Particle Size; D047011:Silk / Q000737:chemistry*; D013112:Spiders; D013499:Surface Properties; D013696:Temperature; D013814:Thermal Conductivity
chemical_list: D047011:Silk