Engineering Silk-based Materials into "Living"
Abstract
Biological systems have developed Water-Responsive (WR) actuators that can adapt to the surrounding environment and power their essential tasks. These WR actuators that mechanically swell and shrink in response to changes in Relative Humidity (RH) can have significantly higher energy and power densities over existing actuators and artificial muscles. Despite the great potential of using these biological WR materials as efficient and powerful actuators, mimicking their properties and integrating them into modern engineering systems remains a challenge. This proposal’s goal is to examine the fundamental behavior of “living” WR biomaterials that self-adapt to external loads. Our approach couples two biomaterials, Bacillus (B.) spores and silk fibroin proteins. Using this approach, we can simultaneously deepen our understanding of water transport and confinement in biomolecular systems and engineer robust new living biocomposites. Our experimental plan has three aims 1) examine silk fibroin’s WR properties, 2) investigate interfacial interactions between spores and silk to engineer biocomposites, and 3) create “living” WR muscles for dynamic control over actuation. Our proposed work could not only lead to actuators with high energy and power densities, but we believe that the outcomes will enable new opportunities to integrate living components into active systems.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jan 21, 2022
- Source ID
- FA95502110144XX0
Entities
People
- Raymond S. Tu
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Research Foundation of The City University of New York
- United States Air Force