Facile fabrication of electroconductive natural silk composites by microscale manipulation

Abstract

Flexible smart materials have attracted a lot of attention in material science, especially in biomaterials and wearable devices. In this study, silk composites with high electroconductivity and biocompatibility were prepared based on a facile slight dissolution technique that reduces weak structures and a nanoscale manipulation of silk fibers, which allows more pyrrole penetration and deposition. The composite resistivity and conductivity are 0.021 ± 0.002 Ω m and 0.47 ± 0.03 S cm⁻¹, respectively. Morphology studies and elemental analysis clearly showed that polypyrrole (PPy) distributed the outer and inner silk fibers homogeneously, which contributed to the improvement of the electroconductivity and electric heating properties. The silk/PPy composite supported PC12 cell growth and development as well. These silk/PPy composites with highlighted features provide favourable candidates for biomedical products and wearable devices.