INTRINSICALLY FLUORESCENCE SPIDER SILK

Abstract

Spider silks have been successfully impregnated with rhodamine molecules through a special diet change. The technique described in this work to prepare fluorescence spider silk is direct, simple and low-cost. The obtained rhodamine treated spider silk emitted very bright fluorescence. The presence of rhodamine molecules in spider silk were shown using EDX and the permeation of rhodamine molecules into the core of the silk was shown in the optical slices of confocal imaging. Although the fluorescent spider silks have been successfully prepared by the molecular in-cooperation of rhodamine into silk, these novel fluorescence spider silk retain nearly the original resilience, mechanical properties and crystallinity of the native spider silk.