Figure 2: Multi-level X-ray scattering analysis of SRT structural features.
From: Multi-scale thermal stability of a hard thermoplastic protein-based material
(a) Mesh of multiple 2D WAXS patterns with steps of 100 μm covering the entire tip of a single sucker ring tooth. A representative 2D WAXS pattern (b) and the radial integration pattern of the intensity (c) as a function of the scattering vector q. The observed ring patterns confirm the random orientation of the β-sheet crystals. (d) Diffraction pattern mesh highlighting the SAXS region from a, clearly showing structural anisotropy at the nanoscale. (e,f) A representative 2D SAXS pattern (e) and the radial integration pattern of the intensity (f). The pattern reveals the fibrillar organization of the protein network and the positions of equatorial reflections suggest a hexagonal packing of the fibrils with an inter-fibrillar distance of 12.5 nm. (g) 2D colour-coded image depicting the mean fibrillar orientations (black lines) superimposed on an X-ray transmission data set. (h) Schematic model based on the X-ray scattering observations.
