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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 7: Poster: Biopolymers and Biomaterials (jointly with BP)

CPP 7.3: Poster

Montag, 26. März 2012, 17:30–19:30, Poster A

Structural levels of organization in spider-silk - a combined mechanical and IR-spectroscopic study — •Markus Anton, Wilhelm Kossack, Roxana Ene, Christof Gutsche, and Friedrich Kremer — University of Leipzig, Institute of Experimental Physics I, Linnéstr. 5, 04103 Leipzig, Germany

Many efforts were undertaken to develop novel materials with promising mechanical qualities using spider silk as a pattern. Due to its unique mechanical properties, namely high tensile strength in combination with great elasticity, spider silk even surpass modern synthetic fibers like Kevlar [Kubik, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 41 (2002)].

Despite the successful synthesis of silk-like proteins, one is incapable to manufacture materials with similar properties on a large scale [Heim et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 48 (2009)], because of an incomplete understanding of spider silk’s microscopic structure. Its mechanical properties are based on a refined architecture at the molecular and mesoscopic scale. Nanocrystals are interconnected by prestrained amorphous regions offering an internal pressure counterbalanced by the fiber’s outer skin. By that structure, external stress is directly transferred to the nanocrystals resulting in a shift of the Alanin-specific absorption band [Papadopoulos et al., Colloid. Pol. Sci. 287 (2009), R. Ene et al, Soft Matter 5 (2009)].

To unravel this interplay between external and internal constrains a pressure- and temperature-dependent analysis of specific IR absorption bands by means of hydrostatic pressure provided by a diamond anvil cell was carried out.