Spider silk can be made stronger by feeding the spiders that produce the silk aqueous dispersions containing graphene or carbon nanotubes:
[Researchers] in Italy and the UK have found a way to make [spider] silk a lot stronger, using various different spider species and carbon nanotubes or graphene. The research team, led by Professor Nicola Pugno at the University of Trento, Italy, succeeded in having their spiders produce silk with up to three times the strength and ten times the toughness of the regular material.
[...] "We already know that there are biominerals present in in the protein matrices and hard tissues of insects, which gives them high strength and hardness in their jaws, mandibles and teeth, for example. So our study looked at whether spider silk's properties could be 'enhanced' by artificially incorporating various different nanomaterials into the silk's biological protein structures."
To do this, the team exposed three different spider species to water dispersions containing carbon nanotubes or graphene. After collecting the spiders' silk, the team tested its tensile strength and toughness. Professor Pugno said: "We found that the strongest silk the spiders spun had a fracture strength up to 5.4 gigapascals (GPa), and a toughness modulus up to 1,570 joules per gram (J/g). Normal spider silk, by comparison, has a fracture strength of around 1.5 GPa and a toughness modulus of around 150 J/g.
Spider silk reinforced by graphene or carbon nanotubes (DOI: 10.1088/2053-1583/aa7cd3) (DX)
Related: The Strongest Natural Material: Sea Snail Teeth
Synthetic Spider Silk Fiber Created
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday August 17 2017, @11:29PM
The alt-left has nothing to say. They don't want to talk. We saw it in Charlottesville, last weekend. They show up with hairspray and a lighter. And they use that as a flame thrower. Which is absolutely devastating to the ozone. I hear where they don't want me to use hairspray. They want me to use the pump. Because the other one – which I really like better than going "bing, bing, bing," and then it comes out in big globs, right? And it's stuck in your hair and you say, "Oh my God, I gotta take a shower again! My hair's all screwed up!" Right? I wanna use hairspray! I have a lot, a lot of hair, I need hairspray. They say, "Don't use hairspray. It's bad for the ozone!" But the alt-left uses the spray. As the ozone falls from the sky. 🇺🇸