Eden Steven

Carbon nanotubes on a spider silk scaffold

Understanding the compatibility between spider silk and conducting materials is essential to advance the use of spider silk in electronic applications. Spider silk is tough, but becomes soft when exposed to water. Here we report a strong affinity of amine-functionalised multi-walled carbon nanotubes for spider silk, with coating assisted by a water and mechanical shear method. The nanotubes adhere uniformly and bond to the silk fibre surface to produce tough, custom-shaped, flexible and electrically conducting fibres after drying and contraction. The conductivity of coated silk fibres is reversibly sensitive to strain and humidity, leading to proof-of-concept sensor and actuator demonstrations.

Physical characterization of functionalized spider silk: electronic and sensing properties

Abstract This work explores functional, fundamental and applied aspects of naturally harvested spider silk fibers. Natural silk is a protein polymer where different amino acids control the physical properties of fibroin bundles, producing, for example, combinations of β-sheet (crystalline) and amorphous (helical) structural regions. This complexity presents opportunities for functional modification to obtain new types of material properties. Electrical conductivity is the starting point of this investigation, where the insulating nature of neat silk under ambient conditions is described first. Modification of the conductivity by humidity, exposure to polar solvents, iodine doping, pyrolization and deposition of a thin metallic film are explored next. The conductivity increases exponentially with relative humidity and/or solvent, whereas only an incremental increase occurs after iodine doping. In contrast, iodine doping, optimal at 70 °C, has a strong effect on the morphology of silk bundles (increasing their size), on the process of pyrolization (suppressing mass loss rates) and on the resulting carbonized fiber structure (that becomes more robust against bending and strain). The effects of iodine doping and other functional parameters (vacuum and thin film coating) motivated an investigation with magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (MAS-NMR) to monitor doping-induced changes in the amino acid-protein backbone signature. MAS-NMR revealed a moderate effect of iodine on the helical and β-sheet structures, and a lesser effect of gold sputtering. The effects of iodine doping were further probed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, revealing a partial transformation of β-sheet-to-amorphous constituency. A model is proposed, based on the findings from the MAS-NMR and FTIR, which involves iodine-induced changes in the silk fibroin bundle environment that can account for the altered physical properties. Finally, proof-of-concept applications of functionalized spider silk are presented for thermoelectric (Seebeck) effects and incandescence in iodine-doped pyrolized silk fibers, and metallic conductivity and flexibility of micron-sized gold-sputtered silk fibers. In the latter case, we demonstrate the application of gold-sputtered neat spider silk to make four-terminal, flexible, ohmic contacts to organic superconductor samples.

Silk/molecular conductor bilayer thin-films: properties and sensing functions

Since their discovery, organic conductors have attracted fundamental and device physics interest due to their diverse physical properties. However, conventional electrochemical growth methods produce millimeter-sized crystals that do not translate to the fabrication of large-scale thin-film devices. Of late a chemical-vapor annealing method has been proved to be capable of growing a conductive polycrystalline layer of (BEDT-TTF)2I3 molecular conductor on the surface of soluble polycarbonate (PC) thin films in a bilayer configuration. (Here BEDT-TTF = bis(ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene.) This has resulted in efficient piezoresistive organic molecular sensors. Conversely, solubility and other incompatibilities limit the direct application of the crystallite growth method to other substrates with arbitrary shape and composition. Here we report methods to circumvent these limitations. Specifically, we demonstrate the transfer of the active layer of a PC/(BEDT-TTF)2I3 bilayer film from the non-porous parent PC substrate to porous and humidity-dependent Bombyx mori silk target substrates. SEM analysis, temperature dependent resistance, and electromechanical measurements show no significant damage to the transferred (BEDT-TTF)2I3 layer. The silk/(BEDT-TTF)2I3 bilayer films exhibit additional functions that can be used for humidity sensing, electric current-driven actuators, and strain detection. Of particular significance is the piezoresistive function of the porous silk bilayer structure that allows the investigation of multi-stage diffusion processes.

Debye relaxation in high magnetic fields

Dielectric relaxation is universal in characterizing polar liquids and solids, insulators, and semiconductors, and the theoretical models are well developed. However, in high magnetic fields, previously unknown aspects of dielectric relaxation can be revealed and exploited. Here, we report low-temperature dielectric relaxation measurements in lightly doped silicon in high dc magnetic fields

Note: Adhesive stamp electrodes using spider silk masks for electronic transport measurements of supra-micron sized samples

B

Synthesis, characterization, and thermoelectric properties of superconducting (BEDT-TTF)2I3 nanoparticles

both parallel and perpendicular to the applied ac electric field

2D organic molecular metallic soft material derived from BEDO-TTF with electrochromic and rectifying properties

E

Low electrical conductivity threshold and crystalline morphology of single-walled carbon nanotubes – high density polyethylene nanocomposites characterized by SEM, Raman spectroscopy and AFM

. For

Photomagnetic Response in Highly Conductive Iron(II) Spin‐Crossover Complexes with TCNQ Radicals

B\ensuremath{\parallel}E

High Field MAS NMR and Conductivity Study of the Superionic Conductor LiH2PO4: Critical Role of Physisorbed Water in Its Protonic Conductivity

, we observe a temperature and magnetic-field-dependent dielectric dispersion