Spider Silk: Entrapped in Web

摘要

In the world of natural fibers, spider silk has long been renowned as the wonder fiber for its unique combination of high strength and rupture elongation. Having toughness supplementary than three times that of polyaramid and industrial fibers, spider silk continues to magnetize the interest of fiber scientists and hobbyists alike. Although Spider silk is extremely lightweight but a strand of spider silk is long enough to circle the Earth and would weigh less than 500 g. Spider silk is ductile it means it can be effortlessly drawn and transformed into wire and capable to stretch up to 140 % of its length without breaking the strand. It can hold its strength below -40 ℃ and this gives it a very high toughness i.e. high work to fracture. Realizing the need to explore more on this issue, author made an endeavor to know about Spider Silk. Further it emphasizes its properties panorama with the structural outlook. It also draws attention towards cyclic representation of filament formation. At the end, types of spider silk have been discussed.