Effective thermal insulation is crucial for the protection of military personnel deployed in extreme weather missions. Sheep wool is a highly prized, keratin-rich, insulating material that is also praised for its softness. The inner coat of muskox (<i>Ovibos moschatus</i>) and its corresponding keratin-rich fibers, commonly known as qiviut, has been reported by commercial vendors as being stronger, softer, and warmer than sheep wool. However, these statements are largely considered marketing strategies as rigorous scientific evidence backing these claims is essentially non-existent. In this work, we aim to investigate and compare, the thermal and mechanical properties of naturally occurring wool fibers, such as muskox and Merino sheep wools, to characterize and gain insights into enhanced insulating keratin-infused biomaterials. Recent findings involving single-fiber tensile strength testing of commercially obtained qiviut and merino ultrafine wool, indicate that muskox fibers are stronger than Merino ultrafine wools. Single-fiber tests using a dynamic mechanical analyzer revealed that qiviut fibers require larger force loads to fracture the fibers when compared to merino sheep fibers. Additionally, through thermal conductivity testing we show that muskox wool is as thermally insulating as sheep wool but feels lighter and softer to the touch, two features relevant for the development of new textiles. Interestingly, whole protein samples extracted from qiviut and merino wools retain the insulating potential observed with the raw wools, suggesting that the proteins present in these fibers could be enough to confer thermally insulating properties to other materials. Better understanding of the protein content within these fibers, especially which exact keratins are composing these fibers, will open new avenues for exploration using a synthetic biology approach and production of keratins.

Exploring muskox and spider fibers for the thermal property of textiles using synthetic biology

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