Functionalized Silk Materials

T he goal of this work was to exploit the novel structural, physical, and biological features of silk proteins towards functionalization of materials systems generated from this family of protein. A new generation of functional silk systems is sought to provide novel materials with precise control of material features. Three main directions were planned: (a) protein chimeras to form organic (silk) – inorganic nanocomposites; (b) formation of electronic materials using a similar design strategy, but based on enzymatic coupling reactions to form conducting polymers; and (c) continuing to understand and exploit novel processing approaches with these proteins towards new functional materials systems.