How Silk is made and its uses?

Answer 1

It comes from the cocoon of the silk worm and requires a great deal of handling and processing, which makes it one of the most expensive fibers also. Today China is the leading silk producer of the world. Other major silk producing countries include Japan, India and Italy.

Major use of silk is in textile industry like in clothing, house hold accessories like bed sheets cushions, curtains etc.The development of technology to dissolve silk fibers and make film from silk protein has opened the way for research and development into its use in artificial skin, blood vessels, and tendons; contact lenses; catheters for surgical procedures; and anticoagulants. All these applications exploit silk's bio compatibility and permeability.

Other uses are constantly being developed, such as in membranes and filter material, which draw on silk's ability to absorb or filter out specific substances (e.g., oxygen and carbon dioxide), and in bio sensors using silk enzyme-fixing membranes that trap enzymes.

Environment-friendly fishing lines are also being developed from silk. Silk is a natural material and is highly biodegradable, so it promises to play a role in solving the problem of fishing lines polluting waterfowl habitats.