New research into high performance protein fibres

Textile manufacturing is one of the largest industries in the world, and synthetic fibres represent two-thirds of the global textile market. Synthetic fibres are manufactured from petroleum-based feedstocks, which are becoming increasingly expensive as demand for finite petroleum reserves continues to rise.

For the last three decades, spider silks have been held up as a model that could inspire the production of protein fibres exhibiting high performance and ecological sustainability, but unfortunately, artificial spider silks have yet to fulfil this promise.

Previous work on the biomechanics of protein fibres from the slime of hagfishes suggests that these fibres might be a superior biomimetic model to spider silks. To find out more about the latest research into these fibres published in IOP Publishing’s Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, click here.