Moreira Inês P, Esteves Carina, Palma Susana I C J, Ramou Efthymia, Carvalho Ana L M, Roque Ana C A
Associate Laboratory i4HB - Institute for Health and Bioeconomy, NOVA School of Science and Technology, NOVA University of Lisbon, 2829-516, Caparica, Portugal.
UCIBIO - Applied Molecular Biosciences Unit, Department of Chemistry, NOVA School of Science and Technology, NOVA University of Lisbon, 2829-516, Caparica, Portugal.
Mater Today Bio. 2022 May 16;15:100290. doi: 10.1016/j.mtbio.2022.100290. eCollection 2022 Jun.
Silk fibroin is a biobased material with excellent biocompatibility and mechanical properties, but its use in bioelectronics is hampered by the difficult dissolution and low intrinsic conductivity. Some ionic liquids are known to dissolve fibroin but removed after fibroin processing. However, ionic liquids and fibroin can cooperatively give rise to functional materials, and there are untapped opportunities in this combination. The dissolution of fibroin, followed by gelation, in designer ionic liquids from the imidazolium chloride family with varied alkyl chain lengths (2-10 carbons) is shown here. The alkyl chain length of the anion has a large impact on fibroin secondary structure which adopts unconventional arrangements, yielding robust gels with distinct hierarchical organization. Furthermore, and due to their remarkable air-stability and ionic conductivity, fibroin ionogels are exploited as active electrical gas sensors in an electronic nose revealing the unravelled possibilities of fibroin in soft and flexible electronics.
丝素蛋白是一种具有优异生物相容性和机械性能的生物基材料，但其在生物电子学中的应用受到难溶解和固有电导率低的阻碍。已知一些离子液体可溶解丝素蛋白，但在丝素蛋白加工后会被去除。然而，离子液体和丝素蛋白可以协同产生功能材料，这种组合存在尚未开发的机会。本文展示了丝素蛋白在具有不同烷基链长度（2 - 10个碳）的氯化咪唑类定制离子液体中溶解后凝胶化的过程。阴离子的烷基链长度对丝素蛋白二级结构有很大影响，使其采用非常规排列，形成具有独特层次结构的坚固凝胶。此外，由于其显著的空气稳定性和离子导电性，丝素蛋白离子凝胶被用作电子鼻中活性电气气体传感器，揭示了丝素蛋白在柔软和柔性电子学中的潜在可能性。
