Silk Fibroin-Based Flexible Electronics: A Mesoscopic Pathway Toward Human–Machine Interconnection

Abstract

Silk fibroin, a natural textile material spun by silkworms over millennia, is emerging as a transformative platform for integrating human intelligence with artificial intelligence. Its core innovation lies in the meso-functionalization strategy, which precisely programs protein refolding and hierarchical assembly. This strategy groundbreakingly resolves the long-standing performance paradox among biocompatibility, mechanical compliance, and high-fidelity signal acquisition in bioelectronic interfaces, thereby providing a solution that is difficult to achieve with other material systems. This transformation elevates the traditional fiber into a programmable electronic material, capable not only of conformal and seamless skin contact but also of constructing dynamic conductive networks, and even pioneering the fabrication of neuromorphic memristors that emulate synaptic plasticity. Furthermore, silk fibroin systems, reshaped through meso-engineering, are poised to catalyze a novel paradigm for deep integration between biological systems and artificial intelligence. When coupled with AI-driven intelligent analytics and closed-loop feedback control, the system can decode human physiological states in real time into machine-interpretable command signals, while simultaneously delivering adaptive regulatory responses back to the body. This bidirectional interface breaks through the conventional boundaries of human–machine interaction, with application prospects spanning frontier domains such as wearable health monitoring, invasive brain–computer interfaces, and cognitive augmentation technologies. Ultimately, while honoring its heritage as a natural textile, silk fibroin opens a pathway toward deep biointegration that is both sustainable and exceptionally biocompatible. Along this pathway, ancient material wisdom collides with future artificial intelligence to spark synergistic innovation, ultimately empowering human intelligence to reach new heights through human–machine co-evolution.

Keywords

Flexible electrodes / Human–machine interactions / Brain–computer interfaces / Mesoscopic structures / Bioelectronic interfaces

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Funding

Quanzhou Normal University(Grant No. 3001-H25056)

Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province(No. 2025I0024)

Quanzhou City High-Level Talent Team Introduction Project(No. 2025CT015)

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