TIME to ditch the notion that cobwebs are a sign of disuse. They should signify activity instead, say Chinese chemists, who think the presence of synthetic webs could speed up some chemical reactions.
Dew-covered spiderwebs inspired Lei Jiang and Yong Zhao at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and colleagues to explore spider silk’s water-collecting properties. They took silk from a native orb-web spider. Under an electron microscope, it looked like a necklace of fluffy beads separated by narrow strings of compact silk.
Once placed in a misty location, the fluffy beads quickly collapse into thick clumps the team dubbed “spindle-knots”, which then collected large water droplets.
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“Once placed in a misty location, the fluffy beads collapse into thick clumps called spindle-knots”
The thread is constructed from silk fibrils, which are aligned along the strings but randomly arranged at the spindle-knots, says Jiang. The knots have a large surface area to bond with water droplets, making them more hydrophilic than the strings (Nature, ).
The researchers next produced artificial silk with the same properties. They dipped nylon thread into a polymer solution, which when dry mimicked the spindle-knots and collected water in the same way. Jiang says the synthetic silk could be used to “promote faster and more efficient chemical reactions” by acting as miniature reaction centres that bring together reagents in humid environments.
