Plasma sputtering as a novel technique to fabricate a conductive flexible silk fibroin

In this work, the plasma sputtering technique was used for Cu deposition on the silk fibroin film. Because of the extraordinary properties of silk fibroin such as flexibility, excellent mechanical properties, and biocompatibility, it is considered a promising material for the new generation of flexible electronic devices, implants, and wearable electronic devices. After optimization of magnetron sputtering parameters, silk fibroin film was deposited by Cu as a sputtering target for 6 minutes. The results of conductivity analyses and tests of four probes demonstrated that the deposition of silk fibroin film by plasma sputtering results in conductive film fabrication. Moreover, the surface morphology was examined by SEM analysis which clearly shows the Cu atoms among species on the surface. EDX analyses revealed the elemental composition of the material which shows clear Cu peaks after plasma sputtering. As a result, plasma sputtering is a fast, clean, and efficient technique for the deposition of metal on polymer surfaces including silk fibroin to form a conductive flexible surface.