Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
    • Front Matter Portal
    • Journal Club
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses
  • Submit
  • Submit
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • PNAS Staff
    • FAQ
    • Accessibility Statement
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Site Map
  • Contact
  • Journal Club
  • Subscribe
    • Subscription Rates
    • Subscriptions FAQ
    • Open Access
    • Recommend PNAS to Your Librarian

User menu

  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Home
Home
  • Log in
  • My Cart

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
    • Front Matter Portal
    • Journal Club
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses
  • Submit
Research Article

In-drop capillary spooling of spider capture thread inspires hybrid fibers with mixed solid–liquid mechanical properties

Hervé Elettro, Sébastien Neukirch, Fritz Vollrath, and Arnaud Antkowiak
  1. aInstitut Jean Le Rond d'Alembert, Unité Mixte de Recherche 7190, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Sorbonne Universités, F-75005 Paris, France;
  2. bOxford Silk Group, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, United Kingdom

See allHide authors and affiliations

PNAS first published May 16, 2016; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1602451113
Hervé Elettro
aInstitut Jean Le Rond d'Alembert, Unité Mixte de Recherche 7190, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Sorbonne Universités, F-75005 Paris, France;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Sébastien Neukirch
aInstitut Jean Le Rond d'Alembert, Unité Mixte de Recherche 7190, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Sorbonne Universités, F-75005 Paris, France;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Fritz Vollrath
bOxford Silk Group, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, United Kingdom
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Arnaud Antkowiak
aInstitut Jean Le Rond d'Alembert, Unité Mixte de Recherche 7190, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Sorbonne Universités, F-75005 Paris, France;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: arnaud.antkowiak@upmc.fr
  1. Edited by David A. Weitz, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and approved April 19, 2016 (received for review February 12, 2016)

  • Article
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Significance

The spiraling capture threads of spider orb webs are covered with thousands of tiny glue droplets whose primary function is to entrap insects. In this paper we demonstrate that the function of the drops goes beyond that of gluing prey for they also play a role in the mechanical properties of these fibers—usually ascribed solely to the complex molecular architecture of the silk. Indeed, each of the droplets can spool and pack the core silk filament, thus keeping the thread and the whole web under tension. We demonstrate that this effect is the result of the interplay between elasticity and capillarity by making a fully artificial drops-on-fiber compound as extensible as capture thread is.

Abstract

An essential element in the web-trap architecture, the capture silk spun by ecribellate orb spiders consists of glue droplets sitting astride a silk filament. Mechanically this thread presents a mixed solid–liquid behavior unknown to date. Under extension, capture silk behaves as a particularly stretchy solid, owing to its molecular nanosprings, but it totally switches behavior in compression to now become liquid-like: It shrinks with no apparent limit while exerting a constant tension. Here, we unravel the physics underpinning the unique behavior of this ”liquid wire” and demonstrate that its mechanical response originates in the shape-switching of the silk filament induced by buckling within the droplets. Learning from this natural example of geometry and mechanics, we manufactured programmable liquid wires that present previously unidentified pathways for the design of new hybrid solid–liquid materials.

  • bioinspired material
  • microsystems
  • fluid–structure interaction
  • elastocapillarity
  • spider silk

Footnotes

  • ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: arnaud.antkowiak{at}upmc.fr.
  • Author contributions: S.N. and A.A. designed research; H.E., S.N., F.V., and A.A. performed research; H.E., S.N., and A.A. analyzed data; and H.E., S.N., F.V., and A.A. wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1602451113/-/DCSupplemental.

Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.

View Full Text
Next
Back to top
Article Alerts
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on PNAS.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
In-drop capillary spooling of spider capture thread inspires hybrid fibers with mixed solid–liquid mechanical properties
(Your Name) has sent you a message from PNAS
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the PNAS web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Spider-silk–inspired hybrid liquid–solid fibers
Hervé Elettro, Sébastien Neukirch, Fritz Vollrath, Arnaud Antkowiak
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences May 2016, 201602451; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1602451113

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Request Permissions
Share
Spider-silk–inspired hybrid liquid–solid fibers
Hervé Elettro, Sébastien Neukirch, Fritz Vollrath, Arnaud Antkowiak
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences May 2016, 201602451; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1602451113
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Mendeley logo Mendeley
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 118 (15)
Current Issue

Submit

Sign up for Article Alerts

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Abstract
    • Materials and Methods
    • Acknowledgments
    • Footnotes
    • References
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

You May Also be Interested in

Water from a faucet fills a glass.
News Feature: How “forever chemicals” might impair the immune system
Researchers are exploring whether these ubiquitous fluorinated molecules might worsen infections or hamper vaccine effectiveness.
Image credit: Shutterstock/Dmitry Naumov.
Reflection of clouds in the still waters of Mono Lake in California.
Inner Workings: Making headway with the mysteries of life’s origins
Recent experiments and simulations are starting to answer some fundamental questions about how life came to be.
Image credit: Shutterstock/Radoslaw Lecyk.
Cave in coastal Kenya with tree growing in the middle.
Journal Club: Small, sharp blades mark shift from Middle to Later Stone Age in coastal Kenya
Archaeologists have long tried to define the transition between the two time periods.
Image credit: Ceri Shipton.
Illustration of groups of people chatting
Exploring the length of human conversations
Adam Mastroianni and Daniel Gilbert explore why conversations almost never end when people want them to.
Listen
Past PodcastsSubscribe
Panda bear hanging in a tree
How horse manure helps giant pandas tolerate cold
A study finds that giant pandas roll in horse manure to increase their cold tolerance.
Image credit: Fuwen Wei.

Similar Articles

Site Logo
Powered by HighWire
  • Submit Manuscript
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • RSS Feeds
  • Email Alerts

Articles

  • Current Issue
  • Special Feature Articles – Most Recent
  • List of Issues

PNAS Portals

  • Anthropology
  • Chemistry
  • Classics
  • Front Matter
  • Physics
  • Sustainability Science
  • Teaching Resources

Information

  • Authors
  • Editorial Board
  • Reviewers
  • Subscribers
  • Librarians
  • Press
  • Cozzarelli Prize
  • Site Map
  • PNAS Updates
  • FAQs
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Rights & Permissions
  • About
  • Contact

Feedback    Privacy/Legal

Copyright © 2021 National Academy of Sciences. Online ISSN 1091-6490