AUTHOR=Pantano Maria F. , Tatti Roberta , Aversa Lucrezia , Verucchi Roberto , Pugno Nicola M. 

TITLE=Doubling the Mechanical Properties of Spider Silk by C60 Supersonic Molecular Beam Epitaxy

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Materials

VOLUME=7

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/materials/articles/10.3389/fmats.2020.00197

DOI=10.3389/fmats.2020.00197

ISSN=2296-8016

ABSTRACT=<p>Spider silk is one of the most fascinating natural materials, owing to its outstanding mechanical properties. In fact, it is able to combine usually self-excluding properties, like strength and toughness that synthetic fibers fail to replicate. Here, we report a method to further enhance the already excellent mechanical properties of spider's silk, producing nanocomposite fibers where the matrix of spider silk is reinforced with C<sub>60</sub> molecules. These are deposited by Supersonic Molecular Beam Epitaxy (SuMBE) and are able to efficiently interact with silk, as evidenced by XPS analysis. As a consequence, upon proper adjustment of the fullerene kinetic energy, the treated fibers show improved strength, Young's modulus and toughness.</p>