Sustainable silk material for biomedical, optical, food supply
applications
Silk's unique and versatile properties present many possibilities for
future technologies.

Date:
January 4, 2022
Source:
American Institute of Physics
Summary:
Researchers discuss the properties of silk and recent and future
applications of the material. It has been used in drug delivery
and is ideal for wearable and implantable health monitoring
sensors. Silk is also useful in optics and electronics and more
recently has come to the forefront of sustainability research. The
use of silk coatings may also reduce food waste, which is a
significant component of the global carbon footprint.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== While silk is best known as a component in clothes and fabric, the
material has plentiful uses, spanning biomedicine to environmental
science. In Applied Physics Reviews, by AIP Publishing, researchers from
Tufts University discuss the properties of silk and recent and future applications of the material.


==========================================================================
Silk makes an important biomaterial, because it does not generate an
immune response in humans and promotes the growth of cells. It has
been used in drug delivery, and because the material is flexible and
has favorable technological properties, it is ideal for wearable and implantable health monitoring sensors.

As an optically transparent and easily manipulated material at the nano-
and microscale, silk is also useful in optics and electronics. It is
used to develop diffractive optics, photonic crystals, and waveguides,
among other devices.

More recently, silk has come to the forefront of sustainability
research. The material is made in nature and can be reprocessed from
recycled or discarded clothing and other textiles. The use of silk
coatings may also reduce food waste, which is a significant component
of the global carbon footprint.

"We are continuing to improve the integration between different
disciplines," said author Giulia Guidetti. "For example, we can use silk
as a biomedical device for drug delivery but also include an optical
response in that same device. This same process could be used someday
in the food supply chain.

Imagine having a coating which preserves the food but also tells you
when the food is spoiled." Silk is versatile and often superior to more traditional materials, because it can be easily chemically modified and
tuned for certain properties or assembled into a specific form depending
on its final use. However, controlling and optimizing these aspects
depends on understanding the material's origin.

The bottom-up assembly of silk by silkworms has been studied for a long
time, but a full picture of its construction is still lacking. The team emphasized the importance of understanding these processes, because it
could allow them to fabricate the material more effectively and with
more control over the final function.

"One big challenge is that nature is very good at doing things, like
making silk, but it covers an enormous dimensional parameter space," said author Fiorenzo Omenetto. "For technology, we want to make something with repeatability, which requires being able to control a process that has
inherent variability and has been perfected over thousands of years."
The scientists hope to see more materials and devices use silk in the
future, possibly as an integral component in sensors to obtain emergent
data on humans and the environment.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by American_Institute_of_Physics. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Giulia Guidetti, Luciana d'Amone, Taehoon Kim, Giusy Matzeu,
Laia Mogas-
Soldevila, Bradley Napier, Nicholas Ostrovsky-Snider, Jeffery
Roshko, Elisabetta Ruggeri, Fiorenzo G. Omenetto. Silk materials
at the convergence of science, sustainability, healthcare,
and technology.

Applied Physics Reviews, 2022; 9 (1): 011302 DOI: 10.1063/5.0060344 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220104112252.htm
--- up 4 weeks, 3 days, 7 hours, 13 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1:317/3)