Sub-micron silk fibroin film with high humidity sensibility through color changing

Qingsong Li; Ning Qi; Yu Peng; Yafeng Zhang; Lei Shi; Xiaohua Zhang; Yuekun Lai; Kai Wei; Ick Soo Kim; Ke-Qin Zhang

doi:10.1039/C6RA28460D

Sub-micron silk fibroin film with high humidity sensibility through color changing

Qingsong Li,^a Ning Qi,^a Yu Peng,

^a Yafeng Zhang,^e Lei Shi,^b Xiaohua Zhang,*^c Yuekun Lai,

^a Kai Wei,^a Ick Soo Kim^d and Ke-Qin Zhang

*^a

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* Corresponding authors

^a National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk, College of Textile and Clothing Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China
E-mail: kqzhang@suda.edu.cn

^b Department of Physics, Key Laboratory of Micro and Nano Photonic Structures (MOE), Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China

^c Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ruoshui Road 398, Suzhou 215123, China
E-mail: xhzhang2009@sinano.ac.cn

^d Nano Fusion Technology Research Lab, Interdisciplinary Cluster for Cutting Edge Research (ICCER), Division of Frontier Fibers, Institute for Fiber Engineering (IFES), Shinshu University, Ueda, Nagano 386 8567, Japan

^e National Laboratory for Infrared Physics, Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China

Abstract

Use of structural colors for humidity sensors has great potential owing to their not being power driven and having distinct stimulus/color variation properties, but unfortunately most 1D, 2D or 3D photonic crystals have subtle nanostructures which are difficult to fabricate. Here we report a one-layer sub-micron thin film with bright color and high sensitivity to humidity, by spin coating of silk fibroin (SF) solution. The optical properties of the SF film caused by thin film interference can be easily tuned by the coating rates. Due to the high hydrophilicity of SF, the film exhibits fast responses with evident color variation in 5 s. And combined with the large peak red-shifts for more than 130 nm, such a thin film is superior to many other multilayered or photonic crystal based humidity sensors. Considering the good reversibility and durability, these low-cost but highly efficient SF spin coating sensors can realize colorimetric detection of humidity like pH indicator papers, and may have great potential in applications for anti-counterfeit labeling.

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Sub-micron silk fibroin film with high humidity sensibility through color changing

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