Dresden 2014 – scientific programme
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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik
CPP 19: Poster Session 1 (joint session with BP)
CPP 19.12: Poster
Tuesday, April 1, 2014, 09:30–13:00, P1
FTIR-spectroscopy reveals the pressure-dependent interplay between internal and external constraints in spider silk — •Arthur Markus Anton1, Roxana Figuli2, Periklis Papadopoulos3, and Friedrich Kremer1 — 1Institut für Experimentelle Physik I, Universität Leipzig, Germany — 2Institut für Technische Chemie und Polymerchemie, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Germany — 3Max Planck Institut für Polymerforschung, Germany
Due to its unique mechanical properties, namely high tensile strength combined with great elasticity, spider silk surpasses modern synthetic fibers [S. Kubik, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 41 (2002)]. Until recently, one was incapable of manufacturing materials with similar properties on a large scale [M. 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. β-sheet nanocrystals are interconnected through prestrained amorphous regions offering an internal force counterbalanced by the fiber’s outer skin. Due to that structure, external stress is directly transferred to the nanocrystals evident in a shift of an Alanine-specific IR absorption band [P. Papadopoulos et al., Eur. Phys. J. E 24 (2007); R. Ene et al., Soft Matter 5 (2009)]. To unravel this interplay between internal and external constraints a pressure-dependent analysis of this Alanine-specific band by means of hydrostatic pressure provided by a diamond anvil cell (DAC) was carried out [A. M. Anton et al., Macromol. 46 (2013)].