Spider Silk-Improved Quartz-Enhanced Conductance Spectroscopy for Medical Mask Humidity Sensing

Abstract

Spider silk is one of the hottest biomaterials researched currently, due to its excellent mechanical properties. This work reports a novel humidity sensing platform based on a spider silk-modified quartz tuning fork (SSM-QTF). Since spider silk is a kind of natural moisture-sensitive material, it does not demand additional sensitization. Quartz-enhanced conductance spectroscopy (QECS) was combined with the SSM-QTF to access humidity sensing sensitively. The results indicate that the resonance frequency of the SSM-QTF decreased monotonously with the ambient humidity. The detection sensitivity of the proposed SSM-QTF sensor was 12.7 ppm at 1 min. The SSM-QTF sensor showed good linearity of ~0.99. Using this sensor, we successfully measured the humidity of disposable medical masks for different periods of wearing time. The results showed that even a 20 min wearing time can lead to a >70% humidity in the mask enclosed space. It is suggested that a disposable medical mask should be changed <2 h.

Influence of Spider Silk Protein Structure on Mechanical and Biological Properties for Energetic Material Detection

“…In addition to the outstanding mechanical and biological properties that we mentioned above, the structure of spider silk threads with round cross sections and, thus, good light-guiding properties, make them a candidate for use as optical fiber sensors [ 116 , 117 ]. In addition, spidroins are ideal humidity sensors because of their “supercontraction” properties when wetted or saturated in a high-relative-humidity (RH) atmosphere [ 118 ]. When the spidroins are laid in wet conditions, H 2 O molecules infiltrate the silk fiber and disrupt the hydrogen bonding of the amorphous region, resulting in the rearrangement of the configurations [ 119 ].…”

“…Spider silk, as an inherently moisture-sensitive material, requires no additional sensitization [ 118 ]. It is well suited for crafting humidity sensors, offering the benefits of reversibility, consistent repeatability, and eco-friendliness [ 167 ].…”

Quartz-Enhanced Photoacoustic Spectroscopy-Conductance Spectroscopy for Gas Mixture Analysis

“…Spider silk is a wonderful humid transducer due to its sensitivity to water molecules. , When the environment changed from dry to wet, the structure of spider silk will change to a joint to store H 2 O molecules . At high humidity, unrestrained spider dragline silk will shrink up to 50% in length, whereas restrained silk generates stresses in excess of 50 MPa. , Moreover, the shrinkage stress generated is short-lived, which can be reversible and reproducible .…”