title: Production of High Performance Bioinspired Silk Fibers by Straining Flow Spinning.
abstract: In the last years, there has been an increasing interest in bioinspired approaches for different applications, including the spinning of high performance silk fibers. Bioinspired spinning is based on the natural spinning system of spiders and worms and requires combining changes in the chemical environment of the proteins with the application of mechanical stresses. Here we present the novel straining flow spinning (SFS) process and prove its ability to produce high performance fibers under mild, environmentally friendly conditions, from aqueous protein dopes. SFS is shown to be an extremely versatile technique which allows controlling a large number of processing parameters. This ample set of parameters allows fine-tuning the microstructure and mechanical behavior of the fibers, which opens the possibility of adapting the fibers to their intended uses.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Tecnología Biomédica, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid , 28223 Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid), Spain.|Departamento de Ciencia de Materiales, ETSI Caminos, Canales y Puertos, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid , 28040 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Rodrigo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Madurga
authors.affiliation: Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros, Universidad de Sevilla , 41092 Sevilla, Spain.
authors.forename: Alfonso M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Gañán-Calvo
authors.affiliation: Centro de Tecnología Biomédica, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid , 28223 Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid), Spain.|Departamento de Ciencia de Materiales, ETSI Caminos, Canales y Puertos, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid , 28040 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Gustavo R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Plaza
authors.affiliation: Centro de Tecnología Biomédica, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid , 28223 Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid), Spain.|Departamento de Ciencia de Materiales, ETSI Caminos, Canales y Puertos, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid , 28040 Madrid, Spain.|Biomedical Research Networking Center in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN) , Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Gustavo V
authors.initials: GV
authors.lastname: Guinea
authors.affiliation: Centro de Tecnología Biomédica, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid , 28223 Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid), Spain.|Departamento de Ciencia de Materiales, ETSI Caminos, Canales y Puertos, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid , 28040 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Elices
authors.affiliation: Centro de Tecnología Biomédica, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid , 28223 Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid), Spain.|Departamento de Ciencia de Materiales, ETSI Caminos, Canales y Puertos, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid , 28040 Madrid, Spain.|Biomedical Research Networking Center in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN) , Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: José
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8298-8398
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pérez-Rigueiro
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D040761:Biomimetic Materials / Q000138:chemical synthesis*; D015394:Molecular Structure; D047011:Silk / Q000138:chemical synthesis*; D013314:Stress, Mechanical
chemical_list: D047011:Silk