This project was intended to lead to the design and development of a novel, economically viable pre-industrial process, to produce super-strength silk reinforced with graphene or other nanomaterials, which is directly spun by silkworms, starting from preliminary results previously obtained in the case of spiders. In fact, opposite to spiders, production of silk by silkworms is an already established reality at industrial level, with many worldwide companies farming silkworms and commercializing silk textiles. These latter represent only the 0.2% of the global textile market, that includes also technical fibres, considered as a rapidly growing segment. Silk fibers with enhanced properties could in future replace synthetic fibers, such as aramid fibers, in automotive applications, medical devices and protective clothing. Thus, the potential of our fibers is huge and expected to attract increasing interest in the next years.
