Spider silk: a novel optical fibre for biochemical sensing

Kenny Hey Tow; Desmond M. Chow; Fritz Vollrath; Isabelle Dicaire; Tom Gheysens; Luc Thévenaz

doi:10.1117/12.2192427

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28 September 2015 Spider silk: a novel optical fibre for biochemical sensing

Kenny Hey Tow, Desmond M. Chow, Fritz Vollrath, Isabelle Dicaire, Tom Gheysens, Luc Thévenaz

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Proceedings Volume 9634, 24th International Conference on Optical Fibre Sensors; 96347D (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2192427
Event: International Conference on Optical Fibre Sensors (OFS24), 2015, Curitiba, Brazil

Abstract

Whilst being thoroughly used in the textile industry and biomedical sector, silk has not yet been exploited for fibre optics-based sensing although silk fibres directly obtained from spiders can guide light and have shown early promises to being sensitive to some solvents. In this communication, a pioneering optical fibre sensor based on spider silk is reported, demonstrating for the first time the use of spider silk as an optical fibre sensor to detect polar solvents such as water, ammonia and acetic acid.

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Kenny Hey Tow, Desmond M. Chow, Fritz Vollrath, Isabelle Dicaire, Tom Gheysens, and Luc Thévenaz "Spider silk: a novel optical fibre for biochemical sensing", Proc. SPIE 9634, 24th International Conference on Optical Fibre Sensors, 96347D (28 September 2015); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2192427

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