. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2019 Aug 28.

Published in final edited form as: Chem Soc Rev. 2018 Aug 28;47(17):6486–6504. doi: 10.1039/c8cs00187a

Table 1.

Tensile mechanical properties of silks and other materials (adapted from ref. 4, 5, 11).

Materials	Stiffness [GPa]	Strength [MPa]	Extensibility [%]	Toughness [MJ m⁻³]
B.mori silk (with sericin)	5–12	500	19	70
B. mori silk (without sericin)	15–17	610–690	4–16	70–78
N. clavipes silk	11–13	875–972	17–18	111–160
N. clavipes silk (285kDa recombinant)	21	508	15	-
Bone	20	160	3	4
Collagen	0.0018–0.046	0.9–7.4	24–68	-
Elastin	0.001	2	150	2
Resilin	0.002	3	190	4
Synthetic rubber	0.001	50	850	100
Polylactic acid	1.2–3.0	28–50	2–6	1–3
Nylon fiber	5	950	18	80
Kevlar 49 fiber	130	3600	2.7	50