RESUMO
To study the spinning condition of natural biopolymer silk, the silk fibers were directly acquired from Bombyx mori silkworm, N140 x C140 by a simple artificial forcibly silking method at the speed of 60, 120, 180 and 240 cm min(-1), respectively and its microstructure and physical properties were evaluated. The fine silk fibers (about 8 microm) were obtained at faster spinning speed, 240 cm min(-1). The tensile properties of silk fibers were remarkably increased with raising the forcibly spinning speeds. The beta-sheet structure contents of silk fibers obtained at higher speed were considerably increased. The fibers obtained by different spinning speeds exhibited a fairly similar X-ray crystallinity, while the degree of molecular orientation increased with decreasing the fiber diameter. The fine silk fibers obtained at higher speed (240 cm min(-1)) exhibited a slightly higher thermal stability, as shown by the upward shift of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) decomposition temperature.