Silk vs Wool – 14 Key Differences

Silk and Wool are both fibers are from animal origin. But there is a huge difference between silk vs wool.

Silk: Silk is a protein fiber and only one natural continuous filament made by the silkworm, produced by caterpillars belonging to the genus Bombyx. The most beautiful among all textile fibers is silk, which is claimed as the queen of textiles. It comes from the cocoon of silkworm and requires a great deal of handling and processing, which makes it one of the most expensive fibers also.

Wool: Wool is the natural highly crimped textile fiber obtained from a variety of sheep. Wool is possibly the oldest fiber known to humans. It was the first fibers to be spun into yarn and into the fabric. For thousands of years, wool has been used for clothing and other purposes by different tribes and nations around the world. Wool producing countries are Australia, China, the Former USSR, New Zealand, Uruguay, South Africa, Turkey and Pakistan.

14 Key Differences Between Silk vs Wool

Character	Silk	Wool
Outer surface	Very smooth, regular and fine	Uneven scale
Length	300-2000 meter	2-8 cm
Diameter	10-20 µm
Polymer	The silk fibron polymer is a linear fibroin polymer	Wool keratin polymer is a helical configuration cross-link polymer
Amino acid	Silk polymer is composed of sixteen different amino acids	Wool polymer is consist of 20 different amino acids
Di-sulphide bond	Doesn’t contain any di-sulphide bonds	Contains di-sulphide bonds such as cystine
Polymer length	Silk polymer is about as long as 140 nm	Shorter than silk polymer
Repeating unit	Repeating unit is peptide bond	The repeating unit of wool is peptide bond
Chemical bond	Chemical bonding groupings of the silk polymer are hydrogen bonds, the carboxyl and amino groups which give rise to the salt linkages	Chemical bonding grouping of the wool polymer are hydrogen bonds, salt linkages, peptide and disulfide bonds etc
Attraction of polymer	The attraction between silk polymer is thought to be hydrogen bonds	The attraction between wool polymers is thought to be hydrogen bonds and van der wall forces.
Polymer arrangement	Fibroin polymers must therefore lie closer to-gather than this less than 0.5 nm	Keratin polymer lies in cross-linked a helical pattern
Structure	Crystal structure	Amorphous structure
Resistant to abrasion	Low	Good
Resistant to sunlight	Continuous exposer to light weakens silk faster than cotton or wool	Wool has a good resistance against sunlight