Scientists at the University of Strathclyde have received £5.47 million to explore a new way of manufacturing hollow-core optical fibres – fine silica tubes designed to guide light through an empty central channel.
The three-year CoreShell Fibre Foundry project, funded by the Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA), will investigate whether engineered proteins can guide how these fibres form.
Hollow-core optical fibres are conventionally manufactured through complex, high-temperature drawing processes. CoreShell will test whether proteins can instead act as reusable molecular instructions, helping the silica fibre form in the required shape before detaching so that they can potentially be used again.
Test case
The Strathclyde team will use hollow silica fibres as the first test case. If successful, the work could lead to a new manufacturing approach for advanced materials whose structure can be controlled more precisely from the start.
The project is led by Professor Tell Tuttle in Strathclyde’s Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry.
Professor Tuttle said: “What excites me about working with ARIA is its combination of ambition, trust and clear purpose. It gives researchers the freedom to pursue ideas that could genuinely change how things are made, while working alongside us as an engaged and collaborative partner.
“That is exactly the environment needed to turn reusable protein moulds for hollow-core optical fibres from a bold concept into a scalable manufacturing technology.”
The co-investigators on the project are Dr K. H. Aaron Lau, Reader in Pure and Applied Chemistry; Professor Daniel Walker of the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences; Professor James Windmill and Dr Andrew Reid of Electronic and Electrical Engineering; and Professor Xichun Luo of Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management.
Scientific expertise
The team brings together expertise in computational chemistry, machine learning, protein engineering, biomineralisation, precision manufacturing, microfabrication and continuous-flow engineering.
CoreShell Fibre Foundry is one of 11 projects funded through ARIA’s £50 million Universal Fabricators programme, led by Programme Director Ivan Jayapurna. The R&D Creator teams are developing scalable manufacturing processes that use proteins to assemble advanced inorganic and composite materials.
ARIA is an R&D funding agency created to unlock technological breakthroughs that benefit everyone. It funds scientists and engineers to pursue