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Authors

Alhayat Getu Temesgen

Abstract

Spider silk fiber (SSF) is a kind of natural biomaterial with superior performance. Its biocompatibility and mechanical properties are incomparable with those of other natural and artificial materials. The natural spinning process, chemical composition, structure and properties of spider silk had remained mystery for a long time. More than half a century, people had an understanding of the application of spider fiber. The ancient Greeks used spider silk fiber used as medical textile to stop bleeding and heal wounds. Purposes of this research work were focused and systematic attempts made in the biological aspects, properties and structure of the spider silk fibers were studied for easily spin ability and weave ability performance for biomedicine application, especially biocompatible sutures and diminishing micro-organism growths. The experimental results confirmed that, the specific toughness of spider silk fiber was comparable to some of the best synthetic materials which are commercially used. The test result revealed, that the breaking stress of the spider silk fiber for ten samples of spiders range from 1184 to 1452 N/mm2 with elongation at break ranging from 12 to 27 %. While, the breaking stress of Kevlar 49, Carbon fibers and high tenacity nylon are recorded 2000, 1750 and 1600 N/mm2, with the elongation at break of 4.0%, 1.0% and 16% respectively. Generally, its biocompatibility and their mechanical properties were becoming more preferable medical textile materials for biomedical engineering research areas.

Keywords:
Biomedicine mechanical strength, properties, spider fiber, structural

Article Details

References

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