Micro/Nanometer-scale fiber with highly ordered structures by mimicking the spinning process of silkworm.

A new method for the microfluidic spinning of ultrathin fibers with highly ordered structures is proposed by mimicking the spinning mechanism of silkworms. The self-aggregation is driven by dipole-dipole attractions between polar polymers upon contact with a low-polarity solvent to form fibers with nanostrands. The induction of Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities at the dehydrating interface between two miscible fluids generates multi-scale fibers in a single microchannel.