Anchoring mycelium on CNTs to make strong and smart self-regenerative composite materials

Abstract

How to develop new recycled composite materials to meet the growing global demand for sustainable materials is of great interest. In this paper, by leveraging the growth of mycelium to anchor CNTs, the self-regenerative mycelium-CNTs composite materials (MCCs) are created. It demonstrates good strength (∼30 MPa), self-healing (restore ∼98 % original strength), and self-sensing properties. Finally, a human care-computer interaction device is developed to demonstrate the application of this technology. Our manufacturing process utilizes the autonomous growth of living cells grown in in vitro cultures to produce regenerable living composites that do not require harsh chemical processing and polluting exhaust emissions. The final mechanical properties are comparable to commercial polymer plastics, and their functional properties can be further tuned by introducing nanoparticles.