Bioinspired and biomimetic silk spinning

Abstract

Spiders and silkworms are outstanding material and engineering masters in nature. They design and spin silk fibers with unrivaled mechanical properties by utilizing the most simple and green approach. To emulate the intelligence of spiders and silkworms in the design and production of silk fibers, a variety of artificial spinning methods have been developed in the lab. These bioinspired and biomimetic strategies significantly improved the mechanical performance of the regenerated silk fibers and provided possibility for further functionalization of the fibers. This review, therefore, provides a summary of methods to design, spin and functionalize regenerated silk fibers through bioinspired and biomimetic approaches. Here, the bioinspired and biomimetic spinning methods are introduced as four different categories, includes: (i) mimicking the natural spinning environments; (ii) mimicking the geometries of the spinning ducts; (iii) producing the silk spinning dope with nematic structures; as well as (iv) combined biomimetic spinning strategies.