From spider webs to a fibre-optic chemical sensor

Compliant threads maximize spider silk connection strength and toughness.

Millions of years of evolution have adapted spider webs to achieve a range of functionalities, including the well-known capture of prey, with efficient use of material. One feature that has escaped extensive investigation is the silk-on-silk connection joints within spider webs, particularly from a structural mechanics perspective. We report a joint theoretical and computational analysis of an ...

Spider silk thread as a fiber optic chemical sensor

Several research teams have recently highlighted how silk can be used as an optical material. Through a regeneration process, it is possible to obtain silk films made from fibers of silk cocoons, by casting a silk fibron solution on an appropriate surface. These transparent films have been used tomake optical devices such as diffraction gratings, phase masks, and photonic crystal lattices.1 Our...

Fibre-Optic Chemical Sensor Approaches Based on Nanoassembled Thin Films: A Challenge to Future Sensor Technology

Fiber Optic Bragg-Grating Sensors

In-fibre Bragg gratings are sensor elements which are photo-written into optical fibre using intense ultra-violet laser beams and have the potential for the measurement of strain/deformation and temperature with applications reported including monitoring of highways, bridges, aerospace components and in chemical and biological sensors. The development of a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) measuring sy...

Preparation of novel optical fibre-based Cocaine sensors using a molecular imprinted polymer approach

Novel chemical sensors using fibre optic-based techniques for the detection of Cocaine have been developed, utilising molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) containing fluorescein moieties as the signalling groups. The fluorescent MIPs were formed and covalently attached to the distal end of specially chosen optical fibres to create fibre optic probe-based sensors. These sensors exhibited are pr...