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Technology

Synthetic spider silk laced with graphene can heal itself when wet

A material made from a protein in the silk of spiders can rapidly seal any breaks and would work in wearable electronics to monitor your health

By Carissa Wong

24 April 2023

A giant golden orb weaver spider (Nephila pilipes

A protein in the silk of the giant golden orb-weaver spider (Nephila pilipes) allows it to heal when wet

Benambot/iStockphoto/Getty Images

A synthetic material made from a protein in spider silk and laced with graphene can rapidly repair itself and form healable electrical circuits.

Hsuan-Chen Wu at the National Taiwan University and his colleagues collected silk from giant golden orb-weaver spiders (Nephila pilipes) and dissolved it in a chemical called hexafluoroisopropanol.

They dried the solution to create a thin film and used a razor blade to make a small cut in it, about 30 micrometres wide. When they added a…

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