X-ray fluorescence confirms mechanism to increase the toughness of spider silk

Spider silk is a tough yet light material, but recently it has been found that it becomes three times stronger by adding small amounts of metal such as Zn, Ti and Al. The idea was inspired by research which established that trace metals are frequently found in the toughest parts of some insect bodies. Bio-materials scientists think that such metals could be incorporated in the protein structures and lead to unusual mechanical properties. Dr. M. Knez (Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, Halle, Germany) and his colleagues have succeeded in infiltrating Zn, Ti and Al by the application of atomic layer deposition technique. X-ray fluorescence spectra provided the evidence for them. For more information, see the paper, "Greatly Increased Toughness of Infiltrated Spider Silk", S-Mo Lee et al., Science, 324, 488-492 (2009).