Now you can wear your whey — scientists spin artificial silk from whey protein

Silk is a highly desirable commodity. It is lightweight, yet stronger than some metals, and can be extremely elastic. Currently, silk is harvested from farmed silkworms, which is quite costly. Whey, a by-product from cheese manufacture, is really a protein source looking for an application.

Now a Swedish–German team of researchers has mastered turning whey into silk.

Nanofibrils were formed by a protein from cow’s whey under the influence of heat and acid. The fibrils’ shape and characteristics strongly depend on the protein concentration in the solution. At less than 4%, long, straight and thick fibrils form. They can be up to 2000 nm long and 4 to 7 nm thick. But at an only slightly higher protein concentration of 6% or more in the initial solution, the fibrils remain much shorter and thinner, with an average length of just 40 nm and a thickness of 2 to 3 nm. They are also curved-looking, like tiny worms, and are 15 to 25 times softer than the long, straight fibrils.

In the lab, the short and curved fibrils formed much better fibres than the long and straight fibrils.