Japanese scientists extract the world's strongest natural fiber from insects

The superior tensile strength of spider silk can be compared with steel, but it is much lighter; its tensile properties are comparable to rubber bands, and it is more than Kevlar (Kevlar, a high-strength rayon for bulletproof vests, etc.) Tough. Recently, Japanese researchers have extracted more natural fibers than spider silk from an insect called scorpion worm.

According to Japan’s “Daily News” report, Japan’s Xinghe Co., Ltd. and Japan’s Agricultural Food Industry Technology Research Institute issued a joint statement on the 5th that a natural fiber stronger than spider silk was extracted from the wormwood. Researchers expect that this new material will lead to revolutionary technological breakthroughs in the automotive, aircraft manufacturing and other fields.

It is reported that the larvae are the larvae of the genus Moth, which, like the silkworms and spiders, spit out the silk which is mainly composed of protein. According to their experimental results, the tensile properties of the silkworm silk are 2.2 times higher than that of the spider silk, and the tensile strength is 1.8 times higher than that of the spider silk. The researchers believe that if the smear is added to the fiber reinforced composite (FRP), the resulting new material will be several times stronger than before.

In addition, the researchers found many other advantages in the wormwood. For example, its upper limit for high temperature resistance can reach 340 degrees, and the linear density (thickness) is only 1/5 of the nylon thread.

The biggest difficulty now is that the scorpion worm can't be extracted immediately like silk, so it can't be used as fiber. However, this time Japanese researchers used special equipment to successfully extract straight wires of hundreds of meters from the larvae. In addition, the worm is very good, as long as it is fed, it will be silky, and it is possible to achieve large-scale artificial breeding in the future.

At the 5th press conference, President Hiroshi Hiroshi of Hinghe Co., Ltd. said: "So far, we have never encountered such a strong natural fiber, which will be an ideal structural material." Their goal is to establish a mass production system and achieve industrialization as soon as possible.