New heat-pressed silk material outperforms wood, rivals Kevlar and carbon fiber

Researchers fused aligned silk fibers with controlled heat and pressure to create a solid composite that preserves much of silk’s structure.

The material is strong, tough, biocompatible, and has tunable degradation, with performance comparable to Kevlar in some tests.

It also shows new terahertz polarization properties that could support sensing and 6G-related applications.

The work suggests a scalable natural-fiber alternative to some synthetic high-performance materials, including potential orthopedic implants.