Finland Research Reveals Mushrooms Have Potential to Replace Plastics, How?

Researchers from the VTT Technical Research Center in Finland have made a significant discovery in material engineering by uncovering hoof mushrooms' complex structural, chemical, and mechanical properties, Phys.org reports.

The team discovered that the distinctive microstructure of this tinder fungus could serve as the basis for a brand-new class of high-performance materials that could replace plastics.

High-performance Plastics from Mushroom Materials

The fruiting body of the Fomes fomentarius mushroom is an especially interesting species for advanced material applications. According to the researchers, these biological designs are ingeniously lightweight and simple in composition but effective in performance.

The material satisfies several mechanical and functional requirements, such as protection against insects or falling branches, propagation, survival, and a thriving multi-year fruiting body throughout the changing seasons.

Fomes is distinguished by their structure, which can be altered to produce diverse materials with distinct properties. Minimal alterations to the cell morphology and extracellular polymeric composition produce materials with physicochemical properties surpassing most natural and synthetic substances. Fomes achieves high performance without the compromises inherent to conventional materials.

The researchers explain that the mycelium exhibits a microstructure in each layer with a unique orientation, aspect ratio, density, and branch length. An extracellular matrix is a reinforcing adhesive that varies in quantity, polymeric content, and interconnectivity between layers.

An Inspiration for New Industrial Materials

According to Pezhman Mohammadi, Senior Scientist at VTT, the architectural design and biochemical principles of the Fomes fungus create new material engineering opportunities.

It can assist in producing ultra-lightweight technical structures, fabricating nanocomposites with improved mechanical properties, and investigating new fabrication routes for the next generation of programmable materials with high-performance functionalities.

"The production of material from simple ingredients can also help to overcome the challenges of future materials related to cost, time, mass production, and methods of manufacturing and consuming materials," VTT specialist researcher Pezhman explains in a news release.

The research findings can inspire the development of the next generation of mechanically robust, lightweight, sustainable materials for various applications. These applications include impact-resistant implants, sports equipment, body armor, aircraft exoskeletons, electronics, and windshield surface coatings.

Study Overview

The team has discovered that the fungus Fomes fomentarius has remarkable properties that make it an excellent source of inspiration for developing new materials that are extremely strong, hard, and resilient. This is unexpected because we typically do not consider fungi to be strong or resilient.

They discovered that the fungus has three layers, each composed of the same material (mycelium) but arranged differently. Additionally, they found that each layer contains varying amounts of a substance known as the extracellular matrix, which acts as a glue and holds everything together.

Each layer of the fungus possesses unique mechanical properties, such as its hardness, tensile strength, and fragility, resulting from the interplay of these various characteristics.

This is a significant discovery as it suggests that we could use the structure of this fungus as a blueprint to create new extremely strong and lightweight materials.