Robust Myco-Composites: A Biocomposite Platform for Versatile Hybrid-Living Materials
Fungal mycelium, a living network of filamentous threads, thrives on lignocellulosic waste and exhibits rapid growth, hydrophobicity, and intrinsic regeneration, offering a potential means to create next-generation sustainable and functional composites. However, existing hybrid-living mycelium compo...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
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Royal Society of Chemistry
2024
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/156712 |
| _version_ | 1824457920925925376 |
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| author | Shen, Sabrina C. Lee, Nicolas A. Lockett, William J. Acuil, Aliai D. Gazdus, Hannah B. Spitzera, Branden N. J. Buehler, Markus |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Atomistic and Molecular Mechanics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Atomistic and Molecular Mechanics Shen, Sabrina C. Lee, Nicolas A. Lockett, William J. Acuil, Aliai D. Gazdus, Hannah B. Spitzera, Branden N. J. Buehler, Markus |
| author_sort | Shen, Sabrina C. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Fungal mycelium, a living network of filamentous threads, thrives on lignocellulosic waste and exhibits rapid growth, hydrophobicity, and intrinsic regeneration, offering a potential means to create next-generation sustainable and functional composites. However, existing hybrid-living mycelium composites (myco-composites) are tremendously constrained by conventional mold-based manufacturing processes, which are only compatible with simple geometries and coarse biomass substrates that enable gas exchange. Here we introduce a class of structural myco-composites manufactured with a novel platform that harnesses high-resolution biocomposite additive manufacturing and robust mycelium colonization with indirect inoculation. We leverage principles of hierarchical composite design and selective nutritional provision to create a robust myco-composite that is scalable, tunable, and compatible with complex geometries. To illustrate the versatility of this platform, we characterize the impact of mycelium colonization on mechanical and surface properties of the composite. We found that our method yields the strongest mycelium composite reported to date with a modulus of 160 MPa and tensile strength of 0.72 MPa, which represents over a 15-fold improvement over typical mycelium composites, and further demonstrate unique applications with fabrication of foldable bio-welded containers and flexible mycelium textiles. This study bridges the gap between biocomposite and hybrid-living materials research, opening the door to advanced structural mycelium applications and demonstrating a novel platform for development of diverse hybrid-living materials. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:52:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/156712 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2025-02-19T04:17:40Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publisher | Royal Society of Chemistry |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1567122024-12-23T06:02:00Z Robust Myco-Composites: A Biocomposite Platform for Versatile Hybrid-Living Materials Shen, Sabrina C. Lee, Nicolas A. Lockett, William J. Acuil, Aliai D. Gazdus, Hannah B. Spitzera, Branden N. J. Buehler, Markus Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Atomistic and Molecular Mechanics Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Media Laboratory Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Computational Science and Engineering Fungal mycelium, a living network of filamentous threads, thrives on lignocellulosic waste and exhibits rapid growth, hydrophobicity, and intrinsic regeneration, offering a potential means to create next-generation sustainable and functional composites. However, existing hybrid-living mycelium composites (myco-composites) are tremendously constrained by conventional mold-based manufacturing processes, which are only compatible with simple geometries and coarse biomass substrates that enable gas exchange. Here we introduce a class of structural myco-composites manufactured with a novel platform that harnesses high-resolution biocomposite additive manufacturing and robust mycelium colonization with indirect inoculation. We leverage principles of hierarchical composite design and selective nutritional provision to create a robust myco-composite that is scalable, tunable, and compatible with complex geometries. To illustrate the versatility of this platform, we characterize the impact of mycelium colonization on mechanical and surface properties of the composite. We found that our method yields the strongest mycelium composite reported to date with a modulus of 160 MPa and tensile strength of 0.72 MPa, which represents over a 15-fold improvement over typical mycelium composites, and further demonstrate unique applications with fabrication of foldable bio-welded containers and flexible mycelium textiles. This study bridges the gap between biocomposite and hybrid-living materials research, opening the door to advanced structural mycelium applications and demonstrating a novel platform for development of diverse hybrid-living materials. 2024-09-12T19:39:31Z 2024-09-12T19:39:31Z 2024-02-05 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2051-6355 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/156712 Mater. Horiz., 2024, 11, 1689-1703 https://doi.org/10.1039/D3MH01277H Materials Horizons Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ application/pdf Royal Society of Chemistry Royal Society of Chemistry |
| spellingShingle | Shen, Sabrina C. Lee, Nicolas A. Lockett, William J. Acuil, Aliai D. Gazdus, Hannah B. Spitzera, Branden N. J. Buehler, Markus Robust Myco-Composites: A Biocomposite Platform for Versatile Hybrid-Living Materials |
| title | Robust Myco-Composites: A Biocomposite Platform for Versatile Hybrid-Living Materials |
| title_full | Robust Myco-Composites: A Biocomposite Platform for Versatile Hybrid-Living Materials |
| title_fullStr | Robust Myco-Composites: A Biocomposite Platform for Versatile Hybrid-Living Materials |
| title_full_unstemmed | Robust Myco-Composites: A Biocomposite Platform for Versatile Hybrid-Living Materials |
| title_short | Robust Myco-Composites: A Biocomposite Platform for Versatile Hybrid-Living Materials |
| title_sort | robust myco composites a biocomposite platform for versatile hybrid living materials |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/156712 |
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