Wet yellow, textile model

2010/09/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Materialak

Taking as an example the spider web Uloborus walckenaerius, scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have manufactured a new synthetic fabric. The most interesting feature of Amarauna is its behavior against moisture. Air water is condensed in certain areas of the network in drops up to 100 micrometers in diameter. This results in energy and pressure gradients throughout the network. In short, the structure concentrates the humidity and expels it very effectively even if the atmospheric conditions are variable.

Scientists have managed to imitate this behavior through a synthetic fiber. Polymer methacrylate fibers have been used, a material that has a similar behavior to that of spider silk in relation to the interaction of atoms with water. But to concentrate water drops in certain areas, the fibers must have a certain physical structure. That has been the challenge of scientists: to know this structure. SEM has been discovered using an electronic microscope and fibres with this structure have been manufactured. The result behaves like a spider's web. For now, this is just a laboratory experiment, but scientists have stated that it can henceforth be a material applicable to the textile industry.