Colored and Luminescent Silk

Abstract

Silk plays a vital role in textiles and biomedical applications because of its surpassing mechanical properties and extraordinary bio-compatibility. Different physical and chemical methods have been proposed to reconstruct silk into desired forms and to produce the materials that best imitate the silk. Besides the direct usage of silk and the delicate replication of its original structure and properties, there is a thriving interest in acquainting new practicality into silk while sustaining its unique intrinsic properties. Different methods and their advantages in developing functional silk, especially those with luminescence and color done in post-processing steps and biological ways have been discussed. There is a wide range of applications of intrinsically luminescent and colored silk that is directly produced from the silkworms. This is because appropriate molecular properties are incorporated effectively into the silk and hence intrinsically luminescent and colored silk is produced in the silk gland of the silkworm. With these perspectives, an updated generation of silk-containing several functional materials (e.g., medicine, antibiotics, and stimuli-sensitive dyes) can be developed for novel applications such as cancer therapy with optimized release attribute, wound dressing with monitoring/sensing property, tissue engineering scaffolds with antibacterial feature, anticoagulant feature, anti-inflammatory feature, and even more.

Keywords

• silk
• bio-compatibility
• intrinsic
• luminescent
• molecular properties
• functionality