Fictionalizing multi-functional silk has become increasingly important for the advanced textiles. The functional silks, ie magnetism silk fibers, optical silk waveguides and one-photon fluorescence silk fibers have been produced. This talk will highlight two approaches to produce fluorescence silk fibers. One is to incorporate designed two-photon molecules into silk fibers without jeopardizing the mechanical of the original silk. The other is implemented by an effective uptake and selective distribution of orally consumed pre-screened dyes in domesticated silkworms (Bombyx mori larvae) that resulted in intrinsically coloured and highly luminescent silk. Uptake criteria have been established based on the relationship between the structure-dependent partition coefficient (log P) of various dyes vs. the amount selectively absorbed into either silk's core filament protein (fibroin) or its gummy outer layer (sericin). The intrinsically colourful and luminescent silk fibroin, described here for the first time, may also lead to new applications as textile and as biomaterials with additional functions for monitoring, imaging and sensing.
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