Gao Zhong-Feng, Zheng Lin-Lin, Fu Wen-Long, Zhang Lei, Li Jin-Ze, Chen Pu
Advanced Materials Institute, Shandong Academy of Sciences, Qilu University of Technology, Jinan 250014, China.
College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Linyi University, Linyi 276005, China.
Nanomaterials (Basel). 2022 Apr 1;12(7):1177. doi: 10.3390/nano12071177.
In this study, we fed the larval of Bombyx mori silkworms with nanodroplets of liquid metal (LM) coated with microgels of marine polysaccharides to obtain stretchable silk. Alginate-coated liquid metal nanodroplets (LM@NaAlg) were prepared with significant chemical stability and biocompatibility. This study demonstrates how the fed LM@NaAlg acts on the as-spun silk fiber. We also conducted a series of characterizations and steered molecular dynamics simulations, which showed that the LM@NaAlg additions impede the conformation transition of silk fibroins from the random coil and α-helix to the β-sheet by the formation of hydrogen bonds between LM@NaAlg and the silk fibroins, thus enhancing the elongation at the breakpoints in addition to the tensile properties. The intrinsically highly stretchable silk showed outstanding mechanical properties compared with regular silk due to its 814 MPa breaking strength and a breaking elongation of up to 70%-the highest reported performance so far. We expect that the proposed method can expand the fabrication of multi-functional silks.
在本研究中，我们用包裹有海洋多糖微凝胶的液态金属（LM）纳米液滴喂养家蚕幼虫，以获得可拉伸的蚕丝。制备了具有显著化学稳定性和生物相容性的海藻酸盐包裹液态金属纳米液滴（LM@NaAlg）。本研究展示了喂食的LM@NaAlg如何作用于初纺丝纤维。我们还进行了一系列表征和引导分子动力学模拟，结果表明，添加LM@NaAlg会通过LM@NaAlg与丝素蛋白之间形成氢键来阻碍丝素蛋白从无规卷曲和α螺旋向β折叠的构象转变，从而除了拉伸性能外还提高了断裂点处的伸长率。这种本质上具有高拉伸性的蚕丝与普通蚕丝相比表现出出色的机械性能，其断裂强度为814 MPa，断裂伸长率高达70%，是迄今为止报道的最高性能。我们期望所提出的方法能够扩展多功能蚕丝的制造。
