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Quantum dots-reinforced luminescent silkworm silk with superior mechanical properties and highly stable fluorescence

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Abstract

Functional fluorescent silkworm silk holds promise for many important applications in biomedical engineering, optics, and photonics. However, it remains a challenge to obtain fluorescent silk in scale-up with both good mechanical properties and highly stable fluorescence simultaneously. In this work, we report a highly efficient strategy to produce fluorescent silk through directly feeding silkworm larvae with graphene quantum dots or CdSe/ZnS core–shell quantum dots. The obtained quantum dots-reinforced luminescent silkworm silk has superior mechanical strength and toughness, stable fluorescence, and good biocompatibility in comparison with the normal or fluorescent dye-colored silk. The strategy proposed in this work is environmental and economical and, also importantly, can generate superior luminescent silks in large scale. This study also provides possible cues for fabricating durable, fluorescent microdevices, and fabrics.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge financial supports from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 31830094, 11372162 and 11432008), 863 Program (2013AA102507), and Funds of China Agriculture Research System (No. CARS-18).

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Author notes

  1. Lan Cheng and Hongping Zhao have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology, Key Laboratory of Sericultural Biology and Genetic Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Biotechnology, College of Textile and Garment, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Lan Cheng & Fangyin Dai

  2. Institute of Biomechanics and Medical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Hongping Zhao, Huiming Huang, Bo Li & Xi-Qiao Feng

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Robert K. Y. Li

Authors
  1. Lan Cheng
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  2. Hongping Zhao
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  4. Bo Li
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  5. Robert K. Y. Li
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Correspondence to Xi-Qiao Feng or Fangyin Dai.

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Cheng, L., Zhao, H., Huang, H. et al. Quantum dots-reinforced luminescent silkworm silk with superior mechanical properties and highly stable fluorescence. J Mater Sci 54, 9945–9957 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-019-03469-w

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