It is commonly known that steel, ceramics and glass fibers are the best building materials and that spider silk is known as the strongest fabric.

However, new research from Stanford University and the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden has established that specially arranged nano-sized cellulose fibers may be stronger than all of them.

The research comes as scientists tried to mimic the architecture of natural materials on the nanoscale level in the hope that this mimicry would translate into larger-scale strength. An example of this is the development of the strong, stiff cell wall layer in wood that is made up of cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) and the organization of this material has served as inspiration for the creation of strong, macroscale substances.

Researchers used flow-assisted assembly to organize CNFs into an alignment within macroscale fibers. Even the weakest fiber that was created was stronger than other CNF fibers previously reported. The macrofibers were stronger than metal, alloys and glass fibers and were both stronger and eight times stiffer than dragline spider silk at the same specific strength.

The team said the material could be useful in many load-bearing applications such as lightweight bio-based composites for cars and bikes as well as high performance medical implants.

The full research can be found in the journal ACS Nano.