Adding ‘wonder material’ graphene or carbon nanotubes to the food eaten by silkworms causes them to produce silk that is stronger than normal, a new study has claimed.
The advance may lead to products such as more protective fabrics, stronger medical implants and even clothes with embedded electronics made from the new silk, researchers said.
Silk is highly prized both for its smooth texture and strength. Silkworms, which are actually silk moth larvae, produce the silk by spinning threads from proteins in their salivary glands.
Researchers have made several attempts to develop improved or exotic silks by adding dyes, nanoparticles, conductive plastics or even antibiotics — either by treating the product after production by the silkworms or by feeding it to them.
In the new effort, researchers at Tsinghua University in China sought to add new properties to silk by adding carbon nanotubes and graphene to their diet.
They sprayed a water solution containing 0.2 per cent carbon nanotubes or graphene onto mulberry leaves and then fed the leaves to the silkworms.
They then allowed the silkworms to make their silk in the normal way, Phys.org reported.
Testing of the silks that were produced showed they could withstand about 50 per cent more stress than traditional silk.
A closer look showed that the new silk was made of a more orderly crystal structure than normal silk.
The researchers cooked the new silk at 1,050 degrees Celsius causing it to be carbonised — that caused the silk to conduct electricity.
More work will need to be done before the new silk can find novel applications, researchers said.
The research was published in the journal Nanoletters .