Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Mar 1;14(5):1160.
doi: 10.3390/ma14051160.

Emerging Silk Material Trends: Repurposing, Phase Separation and Solution-Based Designs

F Philipp Seib  1
Affiliations
Review

Emerging Silk Material Trends: Repurposing, Phase Separation and Solution-Based Designs

F Philipp Seib. Materials (Basel). .

Abstract

Silk continues to amaze. This review unravels the most recent progress in silk science, spanning from fundamental insights to medical silks. Key advances in silk flow are examined, with specific reference to the role of metal ions in switching silk from a storage to a spinning state. Orthogonal thermoplastic silk molding is described, as is the transfer of silk flow principles for the triggering of flow-induced crystallization in other non-silk polymers. Other exciting new developments include silk-inspired liquid-liquid phase separation for non-canonical fiber formation and the creation of "silk organelles" in live cells. This review closes by examining the role of silk fabrics in fashioning facemasks in response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Keywords: Bombyx mori; liquid–liquid phase separation; medical silks; silk fibroin.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Summary of emerging silk material trends. Repurposing [23,25,27,28], solution-based designs [24], phase separation [30,31] and flow [22,26,29] impacting manufacturing and creating living materials.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. WHO . Global Atlas of Medical Devices. WHO; Geneva, Switzerland: 2017.
    1. Sutherland T.D., Young J.H., Weisman S., Hayashi C.Y., Merritt D.J. Insect silk: One name, many materials. Annu. Rev. Entomol. 2010;55:171–188. doi: 10.1146/annurev-ento-112408-085401. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Holland C., Numata K., Rnjak-Kovacina J., Seib F.P. The Biomedical Use of Silk: Past, Present, Future. Adv. Healthc Mater. 2019;8:e1800465. doi: 10.1002/adhm.201800465. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Thurber A.E., Omenetto F.G., Kaplan D.L. In vivo bioresponses to silk proteins. Biomaterials. 2015;71:145–157. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2015.08.039. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Jewell M., Daunch W., Bengtson B., Mortarino E. The development of SERI(R) Surgical Scaffold, an engineered biological scaffold. Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 2015;1358:44–55. doi: 10.1111/nyas.12886. - DOI - PubMed