Recently, in the field of nanomaterials, the top international journal "American Chemical Society: Nano" (ACS NANO) received online the news that in Wuhan Textile University's provincial and ministerial joint construction of the State Key Laboratory of New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technology, Professor Zhang Qiang's research team made great progress on the preparation of natural silk nanofibers and its functional application—"Natural Silk Nanofibril Aerogels with Distinctive Filtration Capacity and Heat-Retention Performance".

Silk is an important fiber material in  China , and the efficient preparation of its nano-scale materials is the key to overcoming the shortcomings of its own application fields. The research proposed a green and simple Top-down technology, which was the solution to the problems of the use of toxic reagents, reduced bio-compatibility and low yield, and achieved the controllable ratio of large length to diameter and high yield of silk nanofibrils. It has shown great application potential in the fields of bio-medicine, environmental protection and special textiles. The research of this work has a positive effect on promoting the application of silk fibers as micro-nano functional materials effectively.

In recent years, the Zhang Qiang/You Renchuan research team has focused on the utilization of silk fiber resources and developed silk, an ancient textile fiber material application field. They has published more than 40 high-level academic papers and authorized more than 10 invention patents.