Spider Dragline Silk (Spidroin)

Protein fiber with higher toughness than Kevlar.

Core Principles & Analysis

• Dragline silk's toughness of roughly 160 MJ/m³ exceeds Kevlar's several-fold because the fiber stretches up to about 30% before breaking.
• Spiders are too territorial and cannibalistic to farm, so recombinant silk proteins are produced in bacteria, yeast, and even the milk of transgenic goats.
• When wetted, unrestrained dragline silk 'supercontracts', shrinking in length by up to half.

Specifications & Metrics

• DENSITY: 1.31 g/cm³
• YIELD STRENGTH: 1400 MPa