Effects of Iron Oxide Content on the Growth of Silkworm and Properties of Silk

ABSTRACT

Silk fibers were produced by feeding Bombyx mori silkworm larvae with a modified feed of mulberry leaves containing nano Fe₃O₄ particles. The silkworms were weighed to determine the effect of nano Fe₃O₄ particles on the growth of larvae. The effects of nano Fe₃O₄ contents on the morphologies, chemical structures, mechanical properties, and thermal properties of silk were also investigated, respectively. The results indicate that the nano Fe₃O₄ particles was embedded in the silk. Additionally, the stress and toughness of modified silk were enhanced, as compared with the normal silk. Finally, the integration of the amide I band intensities suggests a relatively high content of β-sheet in the modified silk.

摘要

用含纳米Fe3O4颗粒的改性桑叶饲料饲喂家蚕幼虫，制成蚕丝纤维. 对家蚕进行称重，研究纳米Fe3O4颗粒对家蚕幼虫生长的影响. 研究了纳米Fe3O4含量对蚕丝形态、化学结构、力学性能和热性能的影响. 结果表明，纳米Fe3O4粒子被嵌入到蚕丝中. 与普通丝相比，改性丝的应力和韧性均有所提高. 最后，酰胺I带强度的积分表明改性丝中β-片的含量相对较高.

KEYWORDS:

• Silk fiber
• feeding method
• Bombyx mori
• nano Fe₃O₄ particles
• microstructure
• modification

关键词:

• 丝纤维
• 喂食方法
• 家蚕
• 纳米Fe3O4颗粒
• 微观结构
• 修改

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their gratitude to the State Key Laboratory of New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, Wuhan Textile University, China for supporting this research. The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 51773158); National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 21905214); Excellent Young Science and Technology Innovation Team of Hubei High School (Grant T201707); and Hubei Key Laboratory of Digital Textile Equipment (DTL2019006) for their financial support.