| Abstract Scope |
Mycelium-bound composites are promising for sustainable packaging, insulation, fashion, architecture. They consist in exploiting a living fungus mycelium network to form a composite. To date, moulding is the main fabrication process of mycelium-bound composites, strongly limiting the design potential for complex shapes to widen the applications. However, extrusion is facile, low energy-cost, and could offer design freedom and structural properties. Here, we combine bamboo microfibres, chitosan, and mycelium from Ganoderma Lucidum into a mixture that is workable, extrudable and buildable. All those components are issued from agricultural waste, making the material sustainable. The resulting materials have low energy costs, are sustainable, and present mechanical properties promising for a range of applications. The extrusion method allows the investigation of complex structures for more optimal mycelium growth thanks to the design of 3D porous structures allowing spreading of the loads and high-density mycelium growth. |