The Fractal Network Structure of Silk Fibroin Molecules and Its Effect on Spinning of Silkworm Silk

Animal silk is usually considered to exist as a solid fiber with a highly ordered structure, formed by the hierarchical assembly starting from a single silk fibroin (SF) chain. However, this study showed that silk protein molecules existed in the form of a fractal network structure in aqueous solution, rather than as a single chain. This type of network was relatively rigid with low fractal dimension. Finite element analysis revealed that this network structure significantly helped in the stable storage of SF prior to the spinning process and in the rapid formation of a β-sheeted nanocrystalline and nematic texture during spinning. Further, the strong but brittle mechanical properties of Bombyx mori silk could also be well-explained through the fractal network model of silk fibroin. The strength was mainly derived from the dual network structure, consisting of nodes and β-sheet cross-links, whereas the brittleness could be attributed to the rigidity of the SF chains between these nodes and cross-links. In summary, this study presents insights from network topology for understanding the spinning process of natural silk and the structure–property relationship in silk materials.