Enhanced water-responsive actuation of porous <i>Bombyx mori</i> silk.

Jung, Yeojin; Khan, Maheen K; Podbevšek, Darjan; Sudhakar, Tejaswini; Tu, Raymond S; Chen, Xi · Soft Matter · 2023

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

<i>Bombyx mori</i> 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<sup>-3</sup>. Our findings show the possibility of controlling water-responsive materials' swelling pressure by controlling their nanoporosities.

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