There are many kinds of wild cocoons, but the main varieties are natural cocoons, castor cocoons, tussah cocoons and chestnut cocoons. The performance of wild silk is different from that of domestic silk, which is determined by the structure of wild silk. As far as we know, there are few reports about the structure and properties of wild cocoon and wild silk, especially about chestnut cocoon and chestnut silk.

In order to improve the utilization value of wild silk, the structure and properties of wild cocoon and wild silk were studied. In this paper, four kinds of wild silkworm cocoons and four degumming methods are systematically introduced, and the structures and properties of four kinds of wild silks are studied by electron microscope, infrared spectrometer, X-ray diffractometer, TG-DTA analyzer, monofilament strength machine and spectrophotometer.

The results show that the strength of degummed silk is lower than that before degumming. All kinds of wild silk mainly contain amide I, amide II, amide III, amide V and other groups, and their conformations are mainly α -helix structure and β -sheet structure. There is no obvious difference in the crystal structure of these silks before and after degumming. The melting point and enthalpy of all kinds of wild silk after degumming are higher than those before degumming. Solvent concentration and dissolution time have great influence on the dissolution rate of wild silk. The dye uptake of chestnut silk is the lowest.