The Silky Way: Biomimetic sensing through changes in structural proteins Final report Authors: Kenny Hey Tow1, Desmond M. Chow1, Fritz Vollrath2, Isabelle Dicaire3, Tom Gheysens3 and Luc Thévenaz1 Affiliation: 1 EPFL Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Group for Fibre Optics, SCI-STI-LT, Station 11, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland; 2 University of Oxford, Department of Zoology, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK; 3 Advanced Concepts Team, European Space Agency (ESA), Noordwijk, The Netherlands. Date: 30 April 2015 ACT research category: Biomimetics Contacts: Kenny Hey Tow Leopold Summerer (Technical Officer) Tel: +41(0)216935604 Tel: +31(0)715654192 Fax: +41(0)216934660 Fax: +31(0)715658018 e-mail:
[email protected] e-mail:
[email protected] Ariadna ID: 14-6401 Ariadna study type: Standard Contract Number: 4000112060/14/NL/MV http://www.esa.int/act This page is intentionally left blank ii Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) University of Oxford Group for Fibre Optics (GFO) Oxford Silk Group CH-1015 Lausanne Oxfordshire OX1 3PS Switzerland United Kingdom FINAL REPORT FOR ARIADNA STUDY 14-6401 THE SILKY WAY: BIOMIMETIC SENSING THROUGH CHANGES IN STRUCTURAL PROTEINS Light propagation along a sample of silk fibre Illustration of a female Nephila edulis spider used by the Oxford Silk Group Prepared by: EPFL-GFO: K. Hey Tow, D. M Chow and L. Thévenaz Oxford Silk Group: F. Vollrath ACT-ESTEC: T. Gheysens, I. Dicaire iii This page is intentionally left blank iv Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) Group for Fibre Optics (GFO) CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland 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.