Biofabrication Strategy for Functional Fabrics

Abstract

Functional fabrics with various unique properties are necessary for making fantastic superior costumes just like a superhero suit in Marvel Comics, which are not only dreams of boys but also emerging textiles to facilitate human life. On the basis of the inspiration of a phenomenon in an extracurricular experiment for kids, we develop a biofabrication strategy to endow silk textiles with various unique physical and chemical properties of functional nanomaterials, where the functional textiles are weaved using silk spun by silkworms that are fed with functional nanomaterials. To confirm the feasibility of this strategy, a photoluminescent plain weave was prepared successfully via feeding biocompatible luminescent nanoparticles to Bombyx mori silkworms. As the functional nanomaterials are enclosed in the silkfibers, the given special properties will be permanent for further application. Considering the wondrous diversity of properties that a variety of nanomaterials possesses may be given to silk fabric, it is promising to see various miraculous costumes in the coming future.

Single atoms supported on metal oxides for energy catalysis

“…82 The mechanism of these SACs is different from that of the formation of intermediate carboxyl or formate via a conventional associative mechanism. 214,217,218 Upon the dissociation of water, OH* is formed on a single Ir 1 atom, while H* is formed on the first-neighboring O atom bonded to an Fe site. CO 2 is produced by the reaction between the CO adsorbed on Ir 1 sites and another O atom adjacent to it, generating an oxygen vacancy (O vac ).…”

Synthesis and Processing of Nanomaterials Mediated by Living Organisms

“…[45,50] Complementary to the mechanical upgrade,c arbon-based NMs may also provide novel functional properties to the silk, such as electrical conductivity, [50] ab etter graphitization after pyrolysis, [51,52] or the emergence of ah ighly stable fluorescence. [46,48,55] Another recurrent family of NMs fed to silkworms are metal and metal oxide NPs.R egarding ZMNPs,t he most investigated are Ag NPs, [56][57][58][59] but there are also reports on feeding with Cu [56,60] and Fe [60] NPs.While the mechanical improvements of the silk in these cases do not match those from carbon-based NMs (Figure 3c,d), the actual benefits lie in the conferral of new properties such as ap otent antibacterial effect [57,58] or the electricity harvesting from silk cocoons. [59] As imilar trend is observed for feeding with metal oxide NPs,which in this case are mostly based on TiO 2 [44,60,61] but there are also specific examples with F 3 O 4 , [49] MoS 2 [61] or MoO 2 [62,63] NPs.F or instance,t he excellent UV-absorbing ability of TiO 2 led to UV-resistant silks, [44] the magnetic properties of F 3 O 4 provided intrinsically magnetic silk, [49] and MoO 2 NPs led to an enhancement of specific capacitance in carbonized silk.…”

Synthesis and Processing of Nanomaterials Mediated by Living Organisms

“…Such is the increase in mechanical properties granted by some carbon‐based NMs, that their feeding to silkworms has been regarded as a way to upgrade properties of silkworm silk to that of spider silk [45, 50] . Complementary to the mechanical upgrade, carbon‐based NMs may also provide novel functional properties to the silk, such as electrical conductivity, [50] a better graphitization after pyrolysis, [51, 52] or the emergence of a highly stable fluorescence [46, 48, 55] . Another recurrent family of NMs fed to silkworms are metal and metal oxide NPs.…”

“…As NMs have been detected in degummed (devoid of sericin) silk, this indicates that, once in the SG, NMs actually interact with the fibroin core. It is widely accepted that NMs incorporated in silk by silkworm feeding do not alter the basic silk structure but its secondary conformation [55] . As the α‐helix/random coil structures confer ductility and toughness to the silk, and β‐sheets provide stiffness, [43] specific physicochemical interactions of NMs with fibroin (likely including electrostatic, π–π stacking, van der Waals and hydrogen bonding [48] ) would change the ratio of secondary motifs, resulting in upgraded mechanical performance.…”