Silkworms Spin Super Silk after Eating Carbon Nanotubes

In a stunning display of nature-meets-technology, researchers have fed carbon nanotubes and graphene to silkworms, creating a much stronger and conductive silk.

    Silkworm silk is gaining significant attention from both the textile industry and research society because of its outstanding mechanical properties and lustrous appearance the study writes.

    The possibility of creating tougher silks attracts particular research interest. Carbon nanotubes and graphene are widely studied for their use as reinforcement. Yingying Zhang and her colleagues at Tsinghua University fed the worms mulberry leaves. 

    Previously, they sprayed the leaves with substances containing 0.2% nanotubes or graphene. After that, they collected the silk as in any commercial process. The resulting silk was impressive for a number of reasons.     First of all, it was tougher. The carbon-enhanced silk could support 50% higher stress before breaking and was twice as rough.

    After being heated up to 1,050 C, the new and improved silk also conducted electricity, unlike regular silk. Granted, it’s not clear just how efficient this is and how long the material would maintain its properties but there could be some very significant applications in smart textiles and sensors.

Source: QNA