A pseudo threefold helical structure found in silk Langmuir-Blodgett films by electron diffraction

The high performance tensile properties of silkworm (Bombyx mori) silk fiber has resulted in a long standing interest in the semicrystalline morphology of this material. The properties of silk fiber depend not only on the chemical composition (primary protein structure) but also on the fiber spinning conditions present in the silk gland which induce the formation of a (β-sheet based crystalline morphology (secondary protein structure). Knowledge of the silk structure is essential for understanding how the natural spinning processes results in such excellent material properties, but surprisingly few experimental results are available concerning the detailed structures of silk proteins. Two β-sheet based silk fibroin crystalline structures (e.g. silk I and silk II) have been studied by many authors, but the silk I structure remains largely uncharacterized. Here we report results from thin silk films prepared by the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique which display a new silk fibroin structure with a threefold helical chain conformation.