Bio-inspired approaches to design bio-luminescent textiles

Luminescent textiles are being increasingly used in apparel and sportswear aswell as in buildings, agriculture and automotives, for safety alert or forillumination or as a design feature[1]. Till now these luminescent textiles havebeen based on technologies such as LED, luminescent particles (rare earthmetals and metal oxides), which are not so eco‐friendly[2].Bio‐inspired strategies can provide efficient methods to achieve eco friendlybioluminescent textiles. Research projects have explored ways which aremainly based on culture of bioluminescent algae[3] or bacteria on textiles.Here we present another approach to achieve bioluminesence using biobasedproducts from various living organisms such as fireflies, fungi, earthwormsthat are found in land and in jelly fishes, shrimps, dinoflagellates, corals inmarine environment [4]. In order to mimic the luminescence effect seen innature, reaction mechanisms in various bioluminescent living organisms arestudied and the components or molecules responsible for luminescence areidentified [5‐10]. Most of the time, these involve enzymatic reactions.However the main challenge is to reproduce the bioluminescent mechanismand to adapt it to new materials which can yield some eco efficient bioinspired luminescent textiles