Enhanced water-responsive actuation of porous Bombyx mori silk

Abstract

Bombyx mori silk with a nanoscale porous architecture significantly deforms in response to changes in relative humidity. Despite the increasing amount of water adsorption and water-responsive strain with increasing porosity of the silk, there is a range of porosities that result in silk's optimal water-responsive energy density at 3.1 MJ m⁻³. Our findings show the possibility of controlling water-responsive materials’ swelling pressure by controlling their nanoporosities.