Recombinant spider silk from aqueous solutions via a bio-inspired microfluidic chip.
Spiders achieve superior silk fibres by controlling the molecular assembly of silk proteins and the hierarchical structure of fibres. However, current wet-spinning process for recombinant spidroins oversimplifies the natural spinning process. Here, water-soluble recombinant spider dragline silk protein (with a low molecular weight of 47 kDa) was adopted to prepare aqueous spinning dope. Artificial spider silks were spun via microfluidic wet-spinning, using a continuous post-spin drawing process (WS-PSD). By mimicking the natural spinning apparatus, shearing and elongational sections were integrated in the microfluidic spinning chip to induce assembly, orientation of spidroins, and fibril structure formation. The additional post-spin drawing process following the wet-spinning section partially mimics the spinning process of natural spider silk and substantially contributes to the compact aggregation of microfibrils. Subsequent post-stretching further improves the hierarchical structure of the fibres, including the crystalline structure, orientation, and fibril melting. The tensile strength and elongation of post-treated fibres reached up to 510 MPa and 15%, respectively.
State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibres and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, China.
Qingfa
Q
Peng
State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibres and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, China.
Yaopeng
Y
Zhang
State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibres and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, China.
Li
L
Lu
State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibres and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, China.
Huili
H
Shao
School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
Kankan
K
Qin
State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibres and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, China.
Xuechao
X
Hu
School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
Xiaoxia
X
Xia
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D005349:Fibroins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D044085:Microfluidics / Q000379:methods*; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000737:chemistry; D047011:Silk / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D013052:Spectrometry, X-Ray Emission; D013112:Spiders / Q000378:metabolism; D013718:Tensile Strength; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry
D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D047011:Silk; D014867:Water; D005349:Fibroins