Growth of Nanostructured and Functional Materials
Contact person: Verucchi Roberto
Bioinspired materials grown by innovative approaches.
   FOR MORE INFORMATION: Lucrezia Aversa - +39 0461 314823 - lucrezia.aversa@imem.cnr.it

Fullerene-Spider silk composites were synthesized by functionalization of the natural material with C60 supersonic molecular beams. The result is spider silk with improved mechanical properties, thanks to the strong interaction with fullerene, at different kinetic energies (KE). Changes in the molecular kinetic energy of the supersonic beam make possible different interaction mechanisms, that can be tuned depending on the specific property to be modified or improved. A general improvement of all the mechanical properties (strenght, strain, Young’s modulus, toughness) has been observed at low KE, while at intermediate KEs only some of them undergo a deteactable change. By means of photoelectron spectroscopy we obtained an analysis of the surface/interphase chemistry, suggesting possible interaction mechanisms between specific segments of the silk and the molecules.

 

Materiali “bioinspired” attraverso approcci sintetici innovativi

A C60 supersonic molecular beam(A), at different Kinetic Energies (KE), impinges on a single wire of spider silk (B) in order to functionalize it and sinthesize a new composite materiale, characterized by modified mechanical properties (C). Low KE beams give the best results in terms of improvement of mechanical characteristics.

 

Pantano MF, Tatti R, Aversa L, Verucchi R and Pugno NM 
Doubling the Mechanical Properties of Spider Silk by C60 Supersonic Molecular Beam Epitaxy. 
Front. Mater. 2020, 7:197. doi:10.3389/fmats.2020.00197