Key Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics and Molecular Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
Department of Equipment Maintenance and Remanufacturing Engineering, Academy of Army Armored Forces, Beijing, 100072, China.
ACS Nano. 2023 Mar 28;17(6):5905-5912. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.2c12855. Epub 2023 Mar 9.
Biopolymer-based optical waveguides with low-loss light guiding performance and good biocompatibility are highly desired for applications in biomedical photonic devices. Herein, we report the preparation of silk optical fiber waveguides through bioinspired in situ mineralizing spinning, which possess excellent mechanical properties and low light loss. Natural silk fibroin was used as the main precursor for the wet spinning of the regenerated silk fibroin (RSF) fibers. Calcium carbonate nanocrystals (CaCO NCs) were in situ grown in the RSF network and served as nucleation templates for mineralization during the spinning, leading to the formation of strong and tough fibers. CaCO NCs can guide the structure transformation of silk fibroin from random coils to β-sheets, contributing to enhanced mechanical properties. The tensile strength and toughness of the obtained fibers are up to 0.83 ± 0.15 GPa and 181.98 ± 52.42 MJ·m, obviously higher than those of natural silkworm silks and even comparable to spider silks. We further investigated the performance of the fibers as optical waveguides and observed a low light loss of 0.46 dB·cm, which is much lower than natural silk fibers. We believed that these silk-based fibers with excellent mechanical and light propagation properties are promising for applications in biomedical light imaging and therapy.
具有低损耗导光性能和良好生物相容性的基于生物聚合物的光波导,非常适合应用于生物医学光子器件。在此,我们通过仿生原位矿化纺丝,制备了具有优异机械性能和低光损耗的丝质光纤波导。再生丝素蛋白(RSF)纤维的湿法纺丝采用天然丝素蛋白作为主要前体。碳酸钙纳米晶体(CaCO NCs)在 RSF 网络中原位生长,并在纺丝过程中作为矿化的成核模板,形成强韧的纤维。CaCO NCs 可以引导丝素蛋白的结构从无规卷曲转变为β-折叠,从而提高机械性能。所得到的纤维的拉伸强度和韧性高达 0.83 ± 0.15 GPa 和 181.98 ± 52.42 MJ·m,明显高于天然蚕丝,甚至可与蜘蛛丝相媲美。我们进一步研究了纤维作为光学波导的性能,观察到 0.46 dB·cm 的低光损耗,远低于天然丝纤维。我们相信,这些具有优异机械性能和光传播性能的基于丝的纤维,在生物医学光成像和治疗方面具有广阔的应用前景。