Abstract: | The processes of fiber formation by the fibroin of natural silk have been studied by the methods of birefringence in a longitudinal hydrodynamic field and optical rotatory dispersion. The experiments were performed with the direct drawing of a fiber from the secretion of the silk glands of the silkwormBombyx mori. The position of appearance of a longitudinal hydrodynamic field within the gland has been detected and experimental results have been obtained which permit an evaluation of the critical condition for the - structural transition of the fibroin chains.Institute of the Chemistry and Physics of Polymers, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, fax (3712) 44 26 61. Translated from Khimiya Prirodnykh Soedinenii, No. 4, pp. 623–627, July–August, 1997. |