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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 8: POSTER: Polymer Physics

CPP 8.30: Poster

Monday, March 26, 2007, 16:00–18:00, Poster B

Rheo-FTIR studies on spider silk — •Jan Sölter, Periklis Papadopoulos, and Friedrich Kremer — Institut für Experimentelle Physik I, Universität Leipzig, Linnéstr. 5, 04103, Leipzig

Spider silk has unique mechanical properties which are currently not met by man-made materials. To study the interrelationship between (microscopic) molecular structure and the (macroscopic) mechanical response a polarized time-resolved FTIR-spectrometer is combined with a custom-made setup to measure the complex mechanical modulus. For that a dense wire grid of single parallel arranged spider threads of Araneus diadematus is prepared and a step-like increase of the strain is applied while measuring the resulting stress. The specifity of the IR spectral range enables one to trace in detail the microscopic response of the different molcular moieties, i.e. the reorientation and the order parameter, the phase relation within the molecular system with respect to the mechanical excitations and possible memory effects.