Taehoon Kim, Beom Joon Kim, Giorgio E. Bonacchini, Nicholas A. Ostrovsky-Snider, Fiorenzo G. Omenetto
{"title":"Silk fibroin as a surfactant for water-based nanofabrication","authors":"Taehoon Kim, Beom Joon Kim, Giorgio E. Bonacchini, Nicholas A. Ostrovsky-Snider, Fiorenzo G. Omenetto","doi":"10.1038/s41565-024-01720-3","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Water-based processing plays a crucial role in high technology, especially in electronics, material sciences and life sciences, with important implications in the development of high-quality reliable devices, fabrication efficiency, safety and sustainability. At the micro- and nanoscale, water is uniquely enabling as a bridge between biological and technological systems. However, new approaches are needed to overcome fundamental challenges that arise from the high surface tension of water, which hinders wetting and, thus, fabrication at the bio–nano interface. Here we report the use of silk fibroin as a surfactant to enable water-based processing of nanoscale devices. Even in minute quantities (for example, 0.01 w/v%), silk fibroin considerably enhances surface coverage and outperforms commercial surfactants in precisely controlling interfacial energy between water-based solutions and hydrophobic surfaces. This effect is ascribed to the amphiphilic nature of the silk molecule and its adaptive adsorption onto substrates with diverse surface energy, facilitating intermolecular interactions between unlikely pairs of materials. The approach’s versatility is highlighted by manufacturing water-processed nanodevices, ranging from transistors to photovoltaic cells. Its performance is found to be equivalent to analogous vacuum-processed devices, underscoring the utility and versatility of this approach for water-based nanofabrication. The amphiphilic nature of silk fibroin makes it a natural surfactant. Here it is shown to mediate interface interactions, enabling the wetting of hydrophobic surfaces with aqueous solutions and facilitating water-processed nanodevice fabrication without previous surface modification.","PeriodicalId":18915,"journal":{"name":"Nature nanotechnology","volume":"19 10","pages":"1514-1520"},"PeriodicalIF":38.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Nature nanotechnology","FirstCategoryId":"88","ListUrlMain":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41565-024-01720-3","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Water-based processing plays a crucial role in high technology, especially in electronics, material sciences and life sciences, with important implications in the development of high-quality reliable devices, fabrication efficiency, safety and sustainability. At the micro- and nanoscale, water is uniquely enabling as a bridge between biological and technological systems. However, new approaches are needed to overcome fundamental challenges that arise from the high surface tension of water, which hinders wetting and, thus, fabrication at the bio–nano interface. Here we report the use of silk fibroin as a surfactant to enable water-based processing of nanoscale devices. Even in minute quantities (for example, 0.01 w/v%), silk fibroin considerably enhances surface coverage and outperforms commercial surfactants in precisely controlling interfacial energy between water-based solutions and hydrophobic surfaces. This effect is ascribed to the amphiphilic nature of the silk molecule and its adaptive adsorption onto substrates with diverse surface energy, facilitating intermolecular interactions between unlikely pairs of materials. The approach’s versatility is highlighted by manufacturing water-processed nanodevices, ranging from transistors to photovoltaic cells. Its performance is found to be equivalent to analogous vacuum-processed devices, underscoring the utility and versatility of this approach for water-based nanofabrication. The amphiphilic nature of silk fibroin makes it a natural surfactant. Here it is shown to mediate interface interactions, enabling the wetting of hydrophobic surfaces with aqueous solutions and facilitating water-processed nanodevice fabrication without previous surface modification.
期刊介绍:
Nature Nanotechnology is a prestigious journal that publishes high-quality papers in various areas of nanoscience and nanotechnology. The journal focuses on the design, characterization, and production of structures, devices, and systems that manipulate and control materials at atomic, molecular, and macromolecular scales. It encompasses both bottom-up and top-down approaches, as well as their combinations.
Furthermore, Nature Nanotechnology fosters the exchange of ideas among researchers from diverse disciplines such as chemistry, physics, material science, biomedical research, engineering, and more. It promotes collaboration at the forefront of this multidisciplinary field. The journal covers a wide range of topics, from fundamental research in physics, chemistry, and biology, including computational work and simulations, to the development of innovative devices and technologies for various industrial sectors such as information technology, medicine, manufacturing, high-performance materials, energy, and environmental technologies. It includes coverage of organic, inorganic, and hybrid materials.