Mimicking silk spinning animals to make artificial fibres more green

The discovery could revolutionise how artificial fibres are manufactured, potentially improving both the properties of the fibres and the environmental performance of the industry.

Artificial fibres have been produced by industry for close to 80 years, and their manufacture has been dominated by a single method. Fibres are made by squeezing a liquid polymer precursor through a small hole and then exposing the liquid to changes in temperature or further chemical treatment in order to harden it into a solid thread. This has meant that the industry has been characterised by high energy usage and the use of potentially hazardous materials.

But the fibres that these filaments are intended to mimic do not require such conditions. Silk thread, produced by spiders and caterpillars, solidify at ambient temperatures outside the animal's body and typically don't require exposure to additional substances, leaving only water behind in the solidification process. The University of Sheffield team, from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, believe that this might be connected with the physical process of how the fibre is produced.