Materials and Design 57 (2014) 298–305

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Materials and Design

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matdes

Bombyx mori silk fibre and its composite: A review of contemporary

developments
A.U. Ude ⇑, R.A. Eshkoor, R. Zulkifili, A.K. Ariffin, A.W. Dzuraidah, C.H. Azhari
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering & Built Environment, The National University of Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Application of natural fibres in composite plastics is gaining popularity in many industries and particu-
Received 29 July 2013 larly the automotive industry. Using natural fibres in polymers provides many advantages over other
Accepted 20 December 2013 techniques, and the application areas appear limitless. There is currently a shift of paradigm in the auto-
Available online 30 December 2013
motive industry towards a ‘‘green’’ outlook, due to consumers’ demand for more environmentally
friendly vehicles. Natural fibres are biodegradable and are renewable natural source. These two charac-
Keywords: teristics are most important for disposal of components at end-life. They are recyclable and can be easily
Bombyx mori silk fibre
converted into thermal energy through combustion, without leaving residue. Among the natural fibres
Composites
Natural fibres
with proven potential application as reinforcement for polymers, Bombyx mori woven silk fibre is one that
Biomedical material recently received special attention from researchers. B. mori silk fibre is one of the best fibres discovered
in nature, providing high mechanical properties over frequently used natural fibres like sisal, jute, hemp
and coir. This review presents a summary of B. mori woven silk fibre and its composite.
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The focus of this review is Bombyx mori natural silk fibres. For
over 400 years, B. mori cocoon has been providing silk for the tex-
tile industry. The cocoon is made of silk fibres consisting of two fi-
broin brins and conglutinated by sericin binder. Silk fibroin is a
natural fibroin protein with a semi crystalline structure, which
provides stiffness and strength. Sericin is an amorphous protein
polymer, which acts as an adhesive binder to maintain the struc-
tural integrity of the fibre and the cocoon. Studies on silk which
has been on-going [1–4] for centuries, revealed that among known
natural fibres, natural silks fibres spun by silkworms possess excel-
lent mechanical properties in terms of high strength, elongation
and energy absorption, as a result of millions of years of evolution.
Silkworm spin silk for the protection of its larvae [5]. Mechanical
properties of silkworm silk, for instance; tensile strength, rival
some synthetic fibres such as E-glass [1,2]. In terms of weight ratio
and elongation at break, silkworm silk is better. Being one of the
strongest known natural fibre, B. mori silk seems to be the perfect
alternative to replace synthetic fibres. Studies has shown that it
possesses a high tensile strength [6], harvesting B. mori silk is easy
and they are cultivated on a very large scale domestically.
Although B. mori silk fibre is one of the best quality natural fibres,
a large quantity of this renewable resource is still under-utilised.
Currently, B. mori silk fibre is mainly used as textiles for textile
industries, tissue engineering and suture material in biomedical
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +60 162843058.
E-mail addresses: albertuche@yahoo.com, uchenna1@eng.ukm.my (A.U. Ude).
industries [7–10]. The recent development in the use of B. mori silk
as a reinforcement in composites has raised great interest and
expectations amongst materials scientists and engineers [11–17].
The major studies on B. mori silk, carried out over the years can
be mostly divided into the following sub-headings:
 Properties of B. mori silk fibres: Mechanical and thermal proper-
ties of B. mori silk have been studied. Scanning Electron Micro-
scope (SEM), Thermogravimetry (TG), Dynamic Mechanical
Analysis (DMA), Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) etc.,
have been used to determine the structural characteristics of
B. mori silk fibre and provide theoretical support for processing
and application of this fibre.
 Interface properties between B. mori silk fibres and matrix: the
main purpose here is to modify the fibre surface structure by
using chemical methods in order to enhance the bond strength
between fibre and matrix and improve qualities.
 Properties of woven B. mori silk-reinforced composites: the
matrix used in woven B. mori silk reinforced composites,
include: thermoplastics (polypropylene, polyethylene, etc.,),
thermosets (epoxy, polyester, etc.,) and elastomers (natural
rubber etc.,). The effect of processing methods, fibre orienta-
tions, fibre lengths, fibre-surface treatment and fibre volume
fraction on the mechanical and physical properties of woven
B. mori silk fibre-reinforced composites have been investigated.
In this scientific review article, the overall characteristics of
B. mori fibre, chemical composition and mechanical properties;
properties of B. mori as a reinforced composite, its behaviour under

0261-3069/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2013.12.052
 A.U. Ude et al. / Materials and Design 57 (2014) 298–305
impact loading, as well as crashworthiness and possible applica-
tions in automotive industry, will be reviewed. Besides, the manu-
facturing processes will be discussed, and the key technical issues
that need to be solved in the future, will also be addressed. Whilst
articles on the properties of B. mori natural fibre have been pub-
lished, the authors have concluded that a detailed review article
on the contemporary developments of B. mori and its composites
has not yet been published; it is believed that such an article
should be of substantial value to the materials and composites re-
search world.
2. Life cycle of Bombyx mori silkworm
The cultivation of silkworm is known as sericulture. Silk fila-
ment produced by B. mori, the mulberry silk moth, passes through
different stages. The first stage of silk production is the laying of
silkworm eggs; this is done in a controlled environment, the fe-
male deposits 300–400 eggs at a time. The female dies almost
immediately after depositing the eggs and the male lives only a
short period after that. Second stage, the eggs are incubated for
about ten days until they hatch into larvae (caterpillars). The third
stage is the feeding period; the larvae are fed with mulberry leaves
for about six weeks [18]. As soon as the silkworms stopped eating,
they are ready to spin silk cocoon. Fig. 1 shows pictorial diagram of
the production cycle of B. mori silk by silkworm. Silkworms spin
silk fibres to construct cocoons. A cocoon, with weight of only sev-
eral grams, is made of a single continuous silk strand with a length
in the range of 700–1500 m. The silk spun by the silkworm, B. mori
silk, consists mainly of two self-assembled proteins, sericin and fi-
broin, the former forming a sheath around the latter.
2.1. Bombyx mori silk reeling process
Silk reeling is a process by which a number of cocoon baves are
reeled together to produce a single thread. Continuous fibre can only
be spun when the sericin coating is removed from the cocoon struc-
ture. The process of removing the sericin is called degumming treat-
ment, which is performed by soaking the B. mori silk in hot water
[19]. Silk reeling is then achieved by unwinding filaments collec-
tively from a group of cooked cocoons at one end in a warm water
bath and winding the resultant thread onto a fast moving reel.
Fig. 1. Life cycle of Bombyx mori silkworm.
299
Raw silk reeling may be classified as (1) direct reeling method,
this is performed on a standard size reel; this method is commonly
used in traditional reeling process, Fig. 2 describes this process, the
basic set-up in traditional silk reeling process include: a pot for
pre-heating the cocoon with an attached reel, silk brins are pulled
out of the cocoons to form a single fibre, the fibre is passed through
a hole in the wooden design to the moving reel [18]. (2) Indirect
method, which means reeling on small reels and transfer the reeled
silk to a standard size reel on a re-reeling machine. This last tech-
nique is primarily applied in modern silk reeling processes. The
modern technique of reeling has advantage over traditional tech-
nique as good quality of silk yarn is obtained from this technique.
In modern techniques, the size of silk yarn is maintained uniform
by the use of denier indicator, and reduced reeling speed which
is vital in producing quality silk yarn is also maintained.
3. Properties of Bombyx mori silk fibres
Presently, B. mori silk is the most researched silk in biotechnol-
ogy, textiles, fibre composite; and biomedical fields [18,20–32].
Physically, silk fibre is eco-friendly, and very transparent with well
ranged structure.
3.1. Chemical composition of Bombyx mori silk
B. mori silk fibre is naturally created with two different protein-
based layers (Fig. 3), fibroin in an inner layer and a sericin coating
in an outer layer. Every silk thread consists of fibroin filaments of
10–14 lm, each embedded in the sericin coating, which acts like
an envelope to bind the fibroins together. The composition of fi-
broin and sericin include matters such as, fats, wax, and sand pig-
ments plus minerals, have been well investigated [33,34]. Fibroin
comprises of a high content of the amino acids glycine and alanine,
42.8 g and 32.4 g respectively. The amino acids in sericin are serine
(30.1 g), threonine (8.5 g), aspartic acid (16.8 g) and glutamic acid
(10.1 g), see Table 1 for a complete data.
3.2. Mechanical properties of Bombyx mori
Many investigations have been made on the mechanical proper-
ties of silkworm silks and their dependence relationship with the
300 A.U. Ude et al. / Materials and Design 57 (2014) 298–305

Fig. 2. Traditional set-up of Bombyx mori silk reeling process.

Table 1
Amino acid composition of fibroin and sericin in B. mori silk.

Amino acids Fibroin Sericin Amino acids Fibroin Sericin

Glycine 42.8 8.8 Glutamic acid 1.7 10.1
Alanine 32.4 4.0 Serine 14.7 30.1
Leucine 0.7 0.9 Threonine 1.2 8.5
Isoleucine 0.9 0.6 Phenylalanine 1.2 0.6
Valine 3.0 3.1 Tyrosine 11.8 4.9
Arginine 0.9 4.2 Proline 0.6 0.5
Histidine 0.3 1.4 Methionine 0.2 0.1
Lysine 0.5 5.5 Tryptophan 0.5 0.5
Aspartic acid 1.9 16.8 Cystine 0.1 0.3

Tsukada et al. [40] investigated the effect of silk filament size on

Fig. 3. Schematics diagram showing Bombyx mori silk unique features (source [35]).
microstructures. Shao [36] examined the effect of the harvesting
conditions on the mechanical properties of B. mori silk. They found
that silkworm silk produced by artificial reeling could be stronger,
stiffer and more extensible than that spun naturally. Pérez-Rigue-
iro et al. [28,29,37,38], systematically studied the mechanical
properties (e.g., Young’s modulus, shear modulus, yield stress
and tensile breaking strain) of silkworm silk under different condi-
tions. Using a combination of mechanical deformation and Raman
spectroscopy, Sirichaisit et al. [39], studied the relationship be-
tween the tensile deformation behaviour and molecular structures.
the properties of silkworm silk. They found that the tensile
strength and breaking energy of fine silk fibres are significantly
higher, while the elongation at break does not change with the fi-
bre diameter. Kawahara et al. [41] found that after B. mori silk was
treated with meth-acrylamide, its Young’s modulus was increased
markedly, its elongation-to-break was decreased significantly, and
while its breaking strength had no evident change. Rajkhowa et al.
[42] studied the tensile stress–strain behaviour of four kinds of In-
dian silk fibres. They found that in comparison with non-mulberry
silk, mulberry silk has higher initial modulus, tenacity along with
lower elongation-to-break and toughness, and superior elastic
recovery capability; other mechanical properties comparison of
some natural and synthetic fibres are shown in (Table 2). Jelinski
[43] reported the stress–strain relationship of B. mori silk structure,
 A.U. Ude et al. / Materials and Design 57 (2014) 298–305 301

Table 2
Mechanical properties comparison of some natural and synthetic fibres.

Material Density (kg/cm3) Tensile strength (MPa) Young’s modulus (GPa) Elongation at failure (%) Source
B. mori silk 1.3–1.8 650–750 16 18–20 [44]
Spider silk 1.3 1300–2000 30 28–30 [45]
Flax 1.5 345–1035 50 2.7–3.2 [46]
Hemp 1.48 690 70 1.6 [46]
Jute 1.3 393–773 26.5 1.5–1.8 [46]
Coir 1.2 175 4.0–6.0 10.0 [46]
Sisal 1.5 155–635 9.2–22.0 2.0–2.5 [46]
Cotton 1.5–1.6 287–597 5.5–12.5 7.0–8.0 [46]
E-glass 2.7 1200 73 2.5 [46]
Carbon 1.8 4000 131 2.8 [46]
Kevlar49 1.44 3600–4100 131 2.8 [45]

Fig. 4. A representative tensile stress–strain curve of Bombyx mori silk. Fig. 5. Comparison of force–displacement curves of adjacent fibres submerged in
ethanol, acetone and air (gauge length^ 30 mm).

and the curve is shown in Fig. 4. Elastic region, plastic region, elas-
tic modulus (E), yield point and breaking point were well investi-
gated. Further investigation reports on B. mori silk fibre
properties show that they have higher tensile strength than glass
fibre or other synthetic organic fibres, good resilience and excellent
elasticity [38]. Considering the thermal properties, B. mori silk fibre
is reported stable at a temperature up to 140 °C and the thermal
decomposition temperature is greater than 150 °C. The density
has been reported in the range of 1320–1400 kg/m3 with sericin
and 1300–1380 kg/m3 without sericin [19].
3.3. Mechanical properties of Bombyx mori silk fibres in different
solutions
Pérez-Rigueiro et al. [28] reported tensile test involving B. mori
silk in different solutions, silkworm silk fibres were submerged in
liquid environments (acetone, water, isopropanol and ethanol) and
tested for tensile strength. The report stated that liquid media were
initially chosen in other to weaken non covalent interaction. How-
ever, only immersion in water leads to a decrease in mechanical
properties of silk, indicating the weakening of hydrogen bonds.
Immersion in acetone, ethanol and isopropanol leads to an increase
in the stiffness of the fibre. In addition, all three organic solvents
produce similar force–displacement curves (Fig. 5), which can be
explained by the desiccating effect that these solvent exert on silk.
These results indicate that water disrupts hydrogen bonds initially
present in the amorphous phase, while the other solvents elimi-
nate water and contribute to the formation of new hydrogen bonds
in the amorphous phase of silk. This interpretation was developed
through the shear lag model of the elastic modulus (E) of silk, and a
good agreement has been found between the model and the exper-
imental values of E.
4. Bombyx mori silk fibre composites
4.1. Bombyx mori silk fibre in biomedical applications
B. mori silk fibre has been used as biomedical suture material for
centuries. The unique mechanical properties of these fibres pro-
vided important clinical repair options for many applications. Re-
ports shows that silk proteins have provided an important set of
polymer materials to be applied in scaffolds for tissues, biocompat-
ible coatings and drug delivery, due to strength, biocompatibility
and low immunogenicity advantages it possess [47–50].
4.2. Bombyx mori silk fibre in automotive applications
Recently, B. mori silk has been introduced as reinforcement in
different polymeric matrix for automotive applications. Oshkovr
et al. [11,14,15], investigated on the crashworthiness characteris-
tics of reinforced B. mori silk composite. Square tubes energy
absorbers of varied lengths were fashioned out of B. mori silk nat-
ural silk/epoxy composite and compared for crashworthiness
Fig. 6. Parameters measured were the crash force efficiency (CFE),
and the total absorbed energy (E-total). Under axial compression
tests, all the samples showed catastrophic failure. Samples failed
with mid length buckling, which was failure originated from the
mid of the tubes which then progress to other areas.
Eshkoor et al. [12,13], applied the use of trigger mechanism as
they investigated the effect of trigger configuration on the crash-
worthiness characteristics of natural silk/epoxy composite tubes
using two different trigger configurations, as shown in Fig. 7. The
failure modes of the natural silk/epoxy composite tubes were
investigated using representative photographs taken during the
302 A.U. Ude et al. / Materials and Design 57 (2014) 298–305

Fig. 6. Comparisons of varied Bombyx mori composite square tubes (A) 50 mm (B) 80 mm and (C) 120 mm lengths respectively.

quasi-static compression test. Other parameters measured were as was reported in [14] above (Fig. 8). It also retained energy
load–displacement graphs and the crashworthiness characteristics. absorption capability similar to the non-triggered samples. The
The results disclosed that with the four-piece trigger mechanism, plug trigger mechanism caused a significant reduction in load car-
the tubes failed in a progressive manner, instead of catastrophic rying capacity and energy absorption capability of samples.
 A.U. Ude et al. / Materials and Design 57 (2014) 298–305 303

Fig. 7. Trigger configurations used.

Fig. 8. Trigger effect on failure mechanism (a) plug (b) four piece.

Fig. 9. Damage fragmentation of sandwich composite panels under 32 J impact load: (a) NS/Epoxy/Honeycomb; (b) NS/Epoxy/Foam; (c) NS/Epoxy/Coremat; (d) NS/Epoxy.

4.3. Bombyx mori silk fibre reinforced composite under impact loading
One major setback to the use of composite is that they are
known to be susceptible to fail by dynamic load (impact) of foreign
objects. Ude et al. [16,17] investigated the impact toughness of B.
mori silk fibre as a reinforced composite face-sheet for cores sand-
wich. They investigated the degree of damage inflicted on the con-
tact surface, through thickness and rear surface of the sandwich
panels (Fig 9). The sandwich specimens were prepared in configu-
rations of natural silk (NS)/Epoxy/Foam, NS/Epoxy/Coremat, NS/
Epoxy/Honeycomb and reinforced NS/Epoxy serving as referral.
For all experiments, drop weight impact test was carried out under
low velocity impact energies of 32, 48 and 64 J. Parameters mea-
sured were load bearing capability, energy absorption capability
and damage fragmentation of the specimen with regards to
increasing impact loads. Results show dominant deformation
modes as upper face-sheet compression failure, lower face-sheet
delamination and tensile failure. The results of fracture toughness
has been investigated by Zulkifli et al. [51], they studied the inter-
laminar fracture toughness, GIC of woven silk reinforced epoxy
composite. Silk fibre has been treated with silane coupling agent
and the silk/epoxy composites has been fabricated with different
number of silk fibre layers. The test specimens were fabricated
using silk fibre of between 8 and 14 layers. The first set of compos-
ites panel consisted of plain silk fibre while the second sets con-
sisted of silk fibre which has been treated with 3-aminopropyl
triethoxysilane. Mode I test based on double cantilever beam spec-
imens (DCB) method has been used over all the specimens. The re-
sults of the GIC were plotted and compared. GIC of the composites
in set 2 were found to be higher than the value in set 1. Comparison
of failure mode/damage fragmentation of B. mori silk composite
with some other natural fibre composites such as Sisal and hemp;
synthetics fibre composites such as carbon fibre and E-glass show
that under axial loading, B. mori silk composite experienced pro-
gressive failure mode, whilst synthetics and natural fibres experi-
enced brittle and catastrophic failure mode[11,13,52,53].
304 A.U. Ude et al. / Materials and Design 57 (2014) 298–305
5. Conclusions
B. mori silk fibre is an effective fibre for biomedical and tissue
engineering applications. Its recent discovery as an effective rein-
forcement of polymer matrices has created a range of technological
applications beyond its traditional usage as textiles and suture
material. The mechanical and physical properties of B. mori silk fi-
bre does not only depend on its original source, orientation, age,
which will affect the structure and properties, but also depends
on the experimental conditions, such as temperature, fibre diame-
ter, fibre-surface treatment etc. Fibre-surface treatment of B. mori
silk with silane can improve the adhesion properties between B.
mori silk and matrix, and increase fracture toughness. Different
matrix arrangements have different properties, the mechanical
and physical properties of B. mori silk fibre reinforced composite
are very sensitive to processing methods, fibre length, fibre orien-
tation and fibre volume fraction. The following areas of research
are however, needed to realise wider applications of B. mori silk fi-
bre in engineering:
 B. mori silk fibre/glass fibres hybrid composites, which takes
advantages of the best properties of the constituents.
 Application of new methods to produce fibre composites:
impregnated with resins by resin transfer moulding (RTM) or
resin film infusion (RFI) to make superior but more economical
composites.
 Fibre/Matrix interface: interface between B. mori silk fibre and
matrices needs to be investigated and the interfacial properties
studied with more rigorous single fibre pull-out and fragmenta-
tion tests. The relationship between interface and bulk compos-
ite properties should be established.
 The fracture toughness and fracture mechanisms of B. mori silk
fibres composite have not been in-depth studied in the previous
published work. This is important if new improved materials to
be developed for safe usage against crack growth.
 New application should be found for B. mori silk fibre compos-
ites, Hybrid fibre composite with B. mori silk and other fibres.
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