Fungal mycelium classified in different material families based on glycerol treatment

Abstract

Fungal mycelium is an emerging bio-based material. Here, mycelium films are produced from liquid shaken cultures that have a Young's modulus of 0.47 GPa, an ultimate tensile strength of 5.0 MPa and a strain at failure of 1.5%. Treating the mycelial films with 0-32% glycerol impacts the material properties. The largest effect is observed after treatment with 32% glycerol decreasing the Young's modulus and the ultimate tensile strength to 0.003 GPa and 1.8 MPa, respectively, whereas strain at failure increases to 29.6%. Moreover, glycerol treatment makes the surface of mycelium films hydrophilic and the hyphal matrix absorbing less water. Results show that mycelium films treated with 8% and 16-32% glycerol classify as polymer-and elastomer-like materials, respectively, while non-treated films and films treated with 1-4% glycerol classify as natural material. Thus, mycelium materials can cover a diversity of material families.

Biofabrication of Nanocellulose–Mycelium Hybrid Materials

“…[ 35 ] Additional processing can be employed to further modify material properties, for instance, nanopapers produced from chitinous extracts treated with HCl or H 2 O 2 (in addition to an initial alkaline extraction) became more hydrophilic, [ 35 ] and similarly, the mechanical properties of S. commune mycelial films were modified by impregnation with glycerol. [ 36 ]…”

The Role of Water Content in the Casing Layer for Mushroom Crop Production and the Occurrence of Fungal Diseases

“…In our trials, at the moment of the pathogen inoculation, those plots with an initial low moisture casing layer showed more mycelium exposed. Since the crop mycelium is hydrophobic [36], water excess delayed the initial colonization of the casing but no effect was noted in respect to the crop earliness. Of note, casing shows fungistasis against mycoparasites, but this is annulled when the host mycelium colonized the material which also deeply modified the microbiome structure of the casing [6,9].…”

Growing living and multifunctional mycelium composites for large-scale formwork applications using robotic abrasive wire-cutting

“…Despite the highly hydrophobic nature of the fungal surface, untreated dried mycelium material takes up relatively high amounts of water, due to the open hyphal structure [7,32]. When the mycelium growth stops following thermal treatment, its filaments are no longer supported by the internal hydrostatic pressure and the hyphae collapse [33].…”