Aalto University Technology Overview
This technology produces silk-like proteins that can be used in adhesives and composites (). We produce engineered silk proteins in microbes and have found that the silk fiber material functions excellently as an adhesive to make composite materials together with cellulose or other materials. Other applications such as surface films, coatings, fibers are also possible. The production process is straightforward and apart from its excellent function, our method also has the benefit that the process is fully aqueous, with no need for using chemicals to solubilize intermediates.
These silk-based materials show high toughness and forms a new way to sustainable high performance materials.
Journal Articles:
Mohammadi, Pezhman, et al. Communications biology 1.1 (2018): 86.Mohammadi, Pezhman, et al. ACS Macro Letters 7.9 (2018): 1120-1125.
Benefits
Sustainable production of the silk-like proteins
Green chemistry and processing condition
Large scale production and purification
Method can be integrated into the existing machinery
Applications
Strong water based bulk adhesive
Adhesive fiber
Film and fiber
Coating
Matrix in composite materials