Contrastive research on the waterproof and dustproof mechanism of wild silkworm silk and domestic silkworm silk

Wild silk has properties of waterproof and dustproof, but its domestic partner has neither. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to observe and compare their morphology difference so that the possible mechanism can be elucidated. By the contrastive research, this paper concludes that the mechanism of waterproof and dustproof of wild silk is due to selective repulsion, each hierarchical cascade of nanoparticles can repel either water molecules or fine particles in air. The SEM study reveals that the different nanoparticles with hierarchical structure on the silk surface are main factors of the highly selective repulsion. This theory can also explain the waterproof property of lotus leaf. A better understanding of the repulsion mechanism of wild silk could help the further design of bio-mimetic waterproof/dustproof artificial materials.

wild silkworm silk; domestic silkworm silk; mechanism of waterproof and dustproof; surface morphology; selective repulsion