Utilization of Bioactive Silk Protein in the Development of Optical Devices: Recent Advancements and Applications

Abstract

Typically, materials used to create optical devices have chemical and physical properties that have been precisely designed for a narrowly defined purpose, allowing for changes in design to account for device variability. There is a growing need for devices built of materials with changeable optical responses, as optical systems are incorporated into platforms with much functionality. Regenerated silk fibroin is described in this article as an enabling gadget with an active optical response as a result of the inherent characteristics of proteins. Silk's capacity for controlled movement, to swell and shrink reversibly, alter conformation and degradation that is customizable, impacts both the shape and the response of the optical structure-representative silk-based gadgets. The diversity of silk material is shown and discussed in this paper, concentrating on architectures that show reconfigurable behavior, an optical waveguide that is physically temporary and provides reversible responses. Finally, innovative research directions for silk-based materials and optical devices are presented in this paper. Since ancient times, silk, a natural biopolymer, has been used as a repair material in medicine. In the past 20 years, it has attracted a lot of interest to be used in several biomedical applications. Various healthcare items with silk as their substrate have been developed thanks to significant advancements in silk biomaterial research. Silk is a fabric created from spider and silkworm cocoons. Hierarchical structures and conventional structural elements are present in them. Different silk types can be produced using certain methods, such as films, fibers, microspheres, sponges, and hydrogels. The structural characteristics of secondary proteins present in silk can also be modified. This paper investigates the use of silk in biomedical and optical applications, and examines the technical trend in electronic fields.

Keywords: Silk; biodegradability; biopolymer; drug delivery; lithography; polydimethylsiloxane; silk fibroin.