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. 2019 Mar 6;9(1):3766.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-40442-8.

Fully Bio-Based Hybrid Composites Made of Wood, Fungal Mycelium and Cellulose Nanofibrils

Wenjing Sun  1 , Mehdi Tajvidi  2 , Christopher G Hunt  3 , Gavin McIntyre  4 , Douglas J Gardner  1
Affiliations

Fully Bio-Based Hybrid Composites Made of Wood, Fungal Mycelium and Cellulose Nanofibrils

Wenjing Sun et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Novel hybrid panel composites based on wood, fungal mycelium, and cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) were developed and investigated in the present study. In one set of experiments, mycelium was grown on softwood particles to produce mycelium-modified wood which was then hybridized with various levels of CNF as binder. The other set of experiments were conducted on unmodified wood particles mixed with CNF and pure mycelium tissue. It was found that the composites made of mycelium-modified wood and CNF resulted in enhanced physical and mechanical properties compared to the ones made by physically mixing wood, mycelium, and CNF. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images showed that mycelium modification covered wood particles with a network of fungal hyphae whereas CNF formed a uniform mycelial film over wood particles. Mycelium modification had a significant effect on reducing water absorption and thickness swelling of the hybrid composites and CNF increased the modulus of rupture and modulus of elasticity, optimally at 2.5% addition. We also present results and analysis pertaining to the development of unique lightweight composite systems with physical and mechanical properties optimized at 5% CNF addition with potential to be used in packaging and furniture applications.

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Conflict of interest statement

Gavin McIntyre is the co-founder of Ecovative Design and is employed by the company. Wenjing Sun, Mehdi Tajvidi, Christopher Hunt and Douglas Gardner declare no potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic representation of the materials and composite production.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Morphology of raw materials: wood particles (a), wood-mycelium particles (b), pure mycelium (c), and CNF (d).
Figure 3
Figure 3
TG (a) and DTG (b) curves of composite raw materials.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Original scanned (a,b), black background (c,d), and binary (e,f) images of wood (a,c,e), wood-mycelium particles (b,d,f) (left) and relative length frequencies of wood and wood-mycelium particles (g) (right).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Water absorption (a,b) and thickness swelling (c,d) of Group 1 (a,c) and Group 2 (b,d). In each figure, columns with common letters are not significantly different at 95% confidence level (p-value > 0.05).
Figure 6
Figure 6
The modulus of rupture (a,b) and the modulus of elasticity (c,d) of Group 1 (a,c) and Group 2 (b,d). The horizontal lines indicate the minimum value of the modulus of rupture and the modulus of elasticity required to meet the ANSI A208.1 standard for LD-1grade. In each figure, columns with common letters are not significantly different at 95% confidence level (p-value > 0.05).
Figure 7
Figure 7
The internal bond strength of Group 1 (a) and Group 2 (b). The horizontal line indicates the minimum value of the internal bond strength required to meet the ANSI A208.1 standard for LD-1 grade. In each figure, columns with common letters are not significantly different at 95% confidence level (p-value > 0.05).
Figure 8
Figure 8
SEM images of different mixtures of raw materials with different magnifications, 200 × (a,c,e) and 1000 × (b,d,f). (a,b) 90% Wood + 10% Mycelium; (c,d) 90% Wood-Mycelium + 2.5% CNF; (e,f) 90% Wood + 10% CNF.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Water absorption (a), thickness swelling (b), modulus of rupture (c) and modulus of elasticity (d) of samples labeled “Effect of Density Comparison” group in Table 2. In each figure, columns with common letters are not significantly different at 95% confidence level (p-value > 0.05).
Figure 10
Figure 10
Water absorption (a), thickness swelling (b), modulus of rupture (c) and modulus of elasticity (d) of “Low-density Optimization” group in Table 2. In each figure, columns with common letters are not significantly different at 95% confidence level (p-value > 0.05).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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