Greco, Gabriele
- Department of Animal Biosciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Research article2024Peer reviewedOpen access
Greco, Gabriele; Schmuck, Benjamin; Del Bianco, Lucia; Spizzo, Federico; Fambri, Luca; Pugno, Nicola Maria; Veintemillas-Verdaguer, Sabino; Morales, Maria Puerto; Rising, Anna
Flexible magnetic materials have great potential for biomedical and soft robotics applications, but they need to be mechanically robust. An extraordinary material from a mechanical point of view is spider silk. Recently, methods for producing artificial spider silk fibers in a scalable and all-aqueous-based process have been developed. If endowed with magnetic properties, such biomimetic artificial spider silk fibers would be excellent candidates for making magnetic actuators. In this study, we introduce magnetic artificial spider silk fibers, comprising magnetite nanoparticles coated with meso-2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid. The composite fibers can be produced in large quantities, employing an environmentally friendly wet-spinning process. The nanoparticles were found to be uniformly dispersed in the protein matrix even at high concentrations (up to 20% w/w magnetite), and the fibers were superparamagnetic at room temperature. This enabled external magnetic field control of fiber movement, rendering the material suitable for actuation applications. Notably, the fibers exhibited superior mechanical properties and actuation stresses compared to conventional fiber-based magnetic actuators. Moreover, the fibers developed herein could be used to create macroscopic systems with self-recovery shapes, underscoring their potential in soft robotics applications.
Bio-fibers; Mechanical properties; Wet-spinning; Composite; Nanomaterials; Superparamagnetism
Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials
2024, Volume: 7, number: 5, article number: 163Publisher: SPRINGERNATURE
Nano-technology
Paper, Pulp and Fiber Technology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42114-024-00962-y
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/132907