Renewable and Compostable Fungus Based Plastics - Establishing the Structure/Property/Processing Relationships to Facilitate Commercialization

可再生和可生物降解的材料是地球可持续发展的关键因素。Ecovative Design, LLC （Ecovative）创造了新的可堆肥菌丝体生物塑料/生物复合材料。这种材料是在黑暗的室温下生长的（因此需要很少的能量来处理），然后加热/干燥以去除水分并使真菌失活。这些新的可生物降解和可再生材料正在商业上出售，作为膨胀聚苯乙烯和聚乙烯泡沫的替代品，这些泡沫是石油基的，难以回收或再利用。这些真菌基生物聚合物有潜力用于其他市场，如目前使用石油基塑料的运输和娱乐。然而，为了满足这种潜力，需要理解结构/属性/处理关系。该奖项支持基础研究，为如何优化和定制这些新材料的性能提供所需的知识。该项目由伦斯勒理工学院、联合学院和Ecovative合作，其影响将是扩大高度可再生、可堆肥和廉价材料替代石油衍生产品的应用范围。Ecovative的生物塑料/生物复合材料是由农业废物、原料、营养物质和真菌接种剂的混合物制成的。由此产生的生物聚合物/生物复合材料由自组装的丝状菌丝团（菌丝真菌的丝细胞构建块）组成，这些丝状菌丝团在农业废弃物周围生长并牢固地固定在农业废弃物上。因此，生物聚合物/生物复合材料的性能在很大程度上取决于农业废弃物的形态、菌丝排列、生物复合材料的密度和定植程度。在所有材料开发中，结构/性能/加工关系是优化物理性能的关键。为了调整结构，我们将探索可以潜在地控制菌丝排列、菌丝强度以及生物聚合物密度的加工技术（模型生长基质的静电纺丝、排列的纤维素纤维基质、菌丝在压力下的生长和冷冻干燥）。我们将使用成像技术和图像分析来表征发展的形态。一系列机械性能将从单个菌丝的规模开始测量，并通过整体进行测量。将结果与连续统水平的复合模型进行比较，作为评价当前模型适用性的起点。

Renewable and biodegradable materials are a key element to a sustainable planet. Ecovative Design, LLC (Ecovative) has created new compostable mycelium-based (fungus) bioplastic/biocomposite materials. The material is grown at room temperature in the dark (thus requiring little energy for processing) and heated/dried to drive off water and inactivate the fungus. These new biodegradable and renewable materials are being sold commercially as replacements for expanded polystyrene and polyethylene foams that are petroleum-based and difficult to recycle or reuse. These fungus-based biopolymers have the potential to be used in additional markets such as transportation and recreation that currently use petroleum-based plastics. To meet that potential, however, the structure/property/processing relationships need to be understood. This award supports fundamental research to provide needed knowledge on how to optimize and tailor the properties of these new materials. The impact of this project, which is a collaboration between Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Union College, and Ecovative, will be to expand the range of applications where highly renewable, compostable, and inexpensive materials can replace petroleum-derived products. Ecovative's bioplastic / biocomposite materials are created from a mixture of agricultural waste, feedstock, nutrients, and fungal inoculant. The resulting biopolymer/biocomposites consist of a self-assembled filamentous mass of hyphae (the filament cellular building block of mycelium fungi) grown around and securely anchoring the agriwaste. Thus, the biopolymer/biocomposite properties are strongly dependent on the agriwaste morphology, the hyphae alignment, density of the biocomposites, and degree of colonization. As in all materials development, structure/property/processing relationships are key to optimizing physical performance. To tailor the structure, we will explore processing techniques (electrospinning of model growth substrate, aligned cellulose fiber substrate, growth of hyphae under pressure, and freeze drying) that can potentially control hyphae alignment and hyphae strength as well as biopolymer density. We will use imaging techniques and image analysis to characterize the morphologies that develop. A range of mechanical properties will be measured from the scale of individual hyphae and progressing up through the bulk. The results will be compared to continuum level composite models as a starting point to evaluate the applicability of current models.