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Introduction
Published in Shishir Sinha, G. L. Devnani, Natural Fiber Composites, 2022
Sheep, camel, and yak furs and hairs are indeed extensively utilized animal fibers. Bird fibers include plumage and wing fibers from chickens and other mammals. Chicken plumes, primarily made up of protein, are waste material from factory farms (Vinod et al., 2020). The fiber in chicken plumes is made up of 91% protein, i.e., keratin, 16% serine, 8% water, 6% moisture, 1.5% fat, 1% lipids, and many other amino acid groups (Ramamoorthy et al., 2015). Due to the extreme absorption characteristic of keratin, chicken plume fibers are employed in microbiological corrosion resilience applications and the fabrication of permeable scrubbers and composite scrubbers for washing glasses and perfectly reflective materials (Mohamed et al., 2018). Also, due to the chemical constituents, higher permeability, and interfacial characteristics, chicken plume fiber-strengthened composites have been shown to have improved tensile and flexural strengths and sonic and electrochemical properties (Ramamoorthy et al., 2015). Approximately 14,000 varieties of butterflies, caterpillars, and about 4,000 kinds of spiders are used to make silk (Vinod et al., 2020). Moreover, throughout the formation of a swaddle, glands around the throat of insects release silk. Silk contains chitin, an extremely organized protein that provides chemical stability, resilience, and strength. The two constituents of the utmost used silkworm or silk moth are 70%–80% fibroin and 20%–30% sericin. There are 5,263 long networked chains and 262 small chains of amino acids linked with disulfide bonds in fibroin. The tenacity of fibroin is approximately 600 MPa, which is higher than widely used plant fibers. Silk fiber–strengthened polymeric materials are employed in the biogenic field, such as regenerative medicine and the fabrication of therapeutic scaffolds (Ramamoorthy et al., 2015). Gigantic forest spiders or phoneutria spiders generate major-ampullate spider silk. The major-ampullate silk fiber is made up of spidroin I and II; both are highly recurring proteins. The fiber is relatively noncrystalline and exhibits a less crystalline nature than bombyx Mori (Ramamoorthy et al., 2015). Major-ampullate (dragline) silk is among the finest silk fibers across numerous species, with a tenacity of 1.1 GPa, comparable to high strength metal such as steel with a tenacity of 1.5 GPa (Mohamed et al., 2018).
Biopolymer composites: a review
Published in International Journal of Biobased Plastics, 2021
Basheer Aaliya, Kappat Valiyapeediyekkal Sunooj, Maximilian Lackner
Silk is usually procured from approx. 14,000 species of butterfly larvae and also from approx. 4000 species of spiders [3]. Silk is the fiber secreted by glands near the mouth of insects during cocoon development. Chitin, a highly structured protein is present in silk which gives the fiber good chemical resistance and mechanical strength. The most widely utilized mulberry silk (Bombyx mori) is composed of two components, fibroin, and sericin. The fibroin consists of 5263 heavy chain and 262 light chain amino acids. It has a tensile strength of about 600 MPa which is relatively more than most of the plant fibers. Silk is used in biomedical applications like tissue engineering and for the production of medical scaffolds by fiber reinforcements in polymers [9]. The silk produced by giant wood spiders or banana spiders (Nephilia) is known as dragline silk. Dragline silk fiber is composed of two highly repetitive proteins, spidroin I and spidroin II. The fiber is semi-crystalline and shows a lower degree of crystallinity than mulberry silk [9]. Amongst the silk fiber from various species, dragline silk is one of the strongest silks with a tensile strength of 1.1 GPa that can be compared to high tensile steel (1.5 GPa) [10].