TY - JOUR
T1 - Water-driven actuation of Ornithoctonus huwena spider silk fibers
AU - Lin, Shuyuan
AU - Zhu, Jia
AU - Li, Xinming
AU - Guo, Yang
AU - Fang, Yaopeng
AU - Cheng, Huanyu
AU - Zhu, Hongwei
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51372133, 51672150, and 51402060). J.Z. and H.C. acknowledge the support from ASME Haythornthwaite Foundation Research Institution Grant and the start-up fund provided by the Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics at The Pennsylvania State University
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Author(s).
PY - 2017/1/30
Y1 - 2017/1/30
N2 - Spider silk possesses remarkable mechanical properties and can lift weight effectively. Certain kinds of spider silk have unique response to liquid, especially water, because of their hydrophilic proteins, β-sheet characters, and surface structure. The Ornithoctonus huwena (O. huwena) spider is a unique species because it can be bred artificially and it spins silk whose diameter is in nanometer scale. In this work, we report the “shrink-stretch” behavior of the O. huwena spider silk fibers and show how they can be actuated by water to lift weight over long distance, at a fast speed, and with high efficiency. We further rationalize this behavior by analyzing the mechanical energy of the system. The lifting process is energy-efficient and environmentally friendly, allowing applications in actuators, biomimetic muscles, or hoisting devices.
AB - Spider silk possesses remarkable mechanical properties and can lift weight effectively. Certain kinds of spider silk have unique response to liquid, especially water, because of their hydrophilic proteins, β-sheet characters, and surface structure. The Ornithoctonus huwena (O. huwena) spider is a unique species because it can be bred artificially and it spins silk whose diameter is in nanometer scale. In this work, we report the “shrink-stretch” behavior of the O. huwena spider silk fibers and show how they can be actuated by water to lift weight over long distance, at a fast speed, and with high efficiency. We further rationalize this behavior by analyzing the mechanical energy of the system. The lifting process is energy-efficient and environmentally friendly, allowing applications in actuators, biomimetic muscles, or hoisting devices.
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U2 - 10.1063/1.4974350
DO - 10.1063/1.4974350
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85011277092
SN - 0003-6951
VL - 110
JO - Applied Physics Letters
JF - Applied Physics Letters
IS - 5
M1 - 053103
ER -