Biocompatible Silk Films for Transient Tactile Sensors

Research interests in naturally derived polymers with flexibility, stretchability, foldability, transparency, transiency, biocompatibility, and biodegradability has recently received much attention. In addition, the emergence of transient electronics, which are decomposed, absorbed, and disappear after operating for a certain period, can supplement the demerits caused by the survival of implanted devices. These technologies rely heavily on the flexibility, stretchability, biocompatibility, and biodegradability of the used biomaterials. This report presents strategies for utilizing both silk fibroin and silk sericin extracted from silk cocoons of <i>Bombyx mori</i> and fabricating silk-based sensors that detects capacitive touching motion and resistance change form mechanical deformation of the sensors. Decomposition and flexibility in humid condition were controlled by annealing fibroin film. Sericin extracted from cocoons in the process of producing fibroin was used to make an adhesive with good biocompatibility. Furthermore, a conductive silk composite was produced through hybridization with tungsten nanoparticles and was used as a piezoresistive/capacitance sensor. The sensitivity of conductive silk composite was confirmed through EEG and EOG tests. The flexibility of wholly silk based sensors was confirmed by measuring the changes in resistance at various bending condition. Acknowledgement: This work was supported by Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT) grant funded by the Korea Government (MOTIE) (P0012770) and grant from the Basic Science Research Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (2023-00208902).