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Photo-induced structural modification of silk gels containing azobenzene side groups
Michael J Landry1, Matthew B Applegate, Oleksandr S Bushuyev
1Department of Chemistry, McGill University, 801 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal H3A 0B8, Canada. christopher.barrett@mcgill.ca.
Soft Matter
|April 4, 2017
Abstract:
Azobenzene modification of Bombyx mori silkworm silk creates a photo-responsive 'azosilk' biomaterial, allowing for 3D laser patterning. Written regions fluoresce, and become fluid-filled raised 'micro-blisters' with a 10-fold photo-softening effect of the modulus. Patterning is facile and versatile, with potential applications as soft tunable materials for dynamic cell guidance and microfluidics.