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AndyTheAbsurd writes:

Spiders sprayed with water containing carbon nanotubes and graphene flakes have produced the toughest fibers ever measured, say materials scientists.

Spider silk is one of the more extraordinary materials known to science. The protein fiber, spun by spiders to make webs, is stronger than almost anything that humans can make.

The dragline silk spiders use to make a web's outer rim and spokes is amazing stuff. It matches high-grade alloy steel for tensile strength but is about a sixth as dense. It is also highly ductile, sometimes capable of stretching to five times its length.

This combination of strength and ductility makes spider silk extremely tough, matching the toughness of state-of-the-art carbon fibers such as Kevlar.

No word in the article on how close to the necessary tensile strength for a space elevator they come. Or how quickly the spiders got cancer. But at least it's a simple process. I wonder if the same technique will work with silkworms, which are commercially viable (something that spiders aren't).

1. "AndyTheAbsurd" - https://soylentnews.org/~AndyTheAbsurd/
2. "Spiders sprayed with water containing carbon nanotubes and graphene flakes have produced the toughest fibers ever measured, say materials scientists." - http://www.technologyreview.com/view/537301/spiders-ingest-nanotubes-then-weave-silk-reinforced-with-carbon/
3. "Original Submission" - https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=8052

printed from SoylentNews, Spiders Ingest Nanotubes, Weave Silk Reinforced with Carbon on 2024-05-08 23:07:16