Researchers in China have successfully genetically modified silkworms to produce spider silk. The silk fibres produced were 6 times tougher than the Kevlar used in bulletproof vests.
Silk tougher than Kevlar thanks to genetically modified silkworms::Researchers in China have successfully genetically modified silkworms to produce spider silk. The silk fibres produced were 6 times tougher than the Kevlar used in bulletproof vests.
I don’t know the material science so I may be a bit off base, but but since kevlar is a synthetic fiber I’m assuming it’s made from petrochemicals and probably a source of microplastic pollution. So there’s probably an environmental aspect to consider. Even if it’s not actually more effective for it’s role, the fact that it’s tougher could be a useful marketing buzzword to get people to switch who wouldn’t care about the environmental impact and maybe even justify an inflated price.
Also while body armor is probably by far the best known use for kevlar it does have other uses like in composite materials in a similar fashion to things like fiberglass. Shaving a couple ounces off a part that might otherwise have been made of kevlar by switching to silk might be attractive to certain fields, maybe we’d see high end racing sailboats with silk sails or something (not that I think that’s a very important use, but for some reason I know some boats have kevlar sails so that came to mind)
I think it’s more practical in terms of being used for layering with kevlar to reduce overall weight of a piece of body armor. While at the same time making it cheaper and more cost effective than traditional body armor materials as mentioned in the article.
So rather than this being used as an upgrade to kevlar (which with more testing it might be able too) it’s more like a side grade to reduce costs, as mentioned in the article silkworm silk is already used on a commercial and industrial level for other applications.
Granted it’ll probably be a good few years before the silk being made by these genetically modified worms is both made consistently and is more refined with further testing and then distributed. But still it’s something that material scientists will likely put to good use for reducing costs in lots of fields.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !technology@lemmy.world
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
English
removed by mod
I don’t know the material science so I may be a bit off base, but but since kevlar is a synthetic fiber I’m assuming it’s made from petrochemicals and probably a source of microplastic pollution. So there’s probably an environmental aspect to consider. Even if it’s not actually more effective for it’s role, the fact that it’s tougher could be a useful marketing buzzword to get people to switch who wouldn’t care about the environmental impact and maybe even justify an inflated price.
Also while body armor is probably by far the best known use for kevlar it does have other uses like in composite materials in a similar fashion to things like fiberglass. Shaving a couple ounces off a part that might otherwise have been made of kevlar by switching to silk might be attractive to certain fields, maybe we’d see high end racing sailboats with silk sails or something (not that I think that’s a very important use, but for some reason I know some boats have kevlar sails so that came to mind)
I think it’s more practical in terms of being used for layering with kevlar to reduce overall weight of a piece of body armor. While at the same time making it cheaper and more cost effective than traditional body armor materials as mentioned in the article.
So rather than this being used as an upgrade to kevlar (which with more testing it might be able too) it’s more like a side grade to reduce costs, as mentioned in the article silkworm silk is already used on a commercial and industrial level for other applications.
Granted it’ll probably be a good few years before the silk being made by these genetically modified worms is both made consistently and is more refined with further testing and then distributed. But still it’s something that material scientists will likely put to good use for reducing costs in lots of fields.