| 1. |
- Wijayarathna, E.R. Kanishka B., et al.
(författare)
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Fungal textile alternatives from bread waste with leather-like properties
- 2022
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Ingår i: Resources, Conservation and Recycling. - : Elsevier. - 0921-3449 .- 1879-0658. ; 179
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Food waste and fashion pollution are two of the most prominent global environmental issues. To alleviate the problems associated with food waste, while simultaneously contributing to sustainable fashion, the feasibility of making an alternative textile material with leather-like properties from fungal biomass cultivated on bread waste was investigated. The filamentous fungus, Rhizopus delemar, was successfully grown on waste bread in a submerged cultivation process, and fungal biomass was treated with vegetable tannin of chestnut wood. NMR and FTIR confirmed interactions between tannin and fungal biomass, while OM, SEM and AFM visualised the changes in the hyphae upon the tannin treatment. Thermal stability was assessed using TGA analysis. The wet-laid technique commonly utilised for paper-making was used to prepare sheets of hyphae. Some of the sheets were treated with glycerol and/or a biobased binder as post-treatment. Overall, three of the produced materials exhibited leather-like properties comparable to that of natural leather. Sheets from untreated biomass with only glycerol post-treatment showed a tensile strength of 7.7 MPa and an elongation at break of 5%. Whereas sheets from untreated biomass and tannin treated biomass with both glycerol and binder treatments led to tensile strengths of 7.1 MPa and 6.9 MPa, and the elongation at break of 12% and 17%, respectively. The enhancement of hydrophobicity after the binder treatment, helped to preserve the absorbed glycerol within the sheet and thereby the flexibility was retained when in contact with moisture. These findings demonstrate that bread waste-derived fungal sheets have great potential as environmentally friendly materials with leather-like properties.
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| 2. |
- Wijayarathna, E.R. Kanishka B., et al.
(författare)
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Tunable Fungal Monofilaments from Food Waste for Textile Applications
- 2024
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Ingår i: Global Challenges. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 2056-6646. ; 8:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A fungal biorefinery is presented to valorize food waste to fungal monofilaments with tunable properties for different textile applications. Rhizopus delemar is successfully grown on bread waste and the fibrous cell wall is isolated. A spinnable hydrogel is produced from cell wall by protonation of amino groups of chitosan followed by homogenization and concentration. Fungal hydrogel is wet spun to form fungal monofilaments which underwent post-treatments to tune the properties. The highest tensile strength of untreated monofilaments is 65 MPa (and 4% elongation at break). The overall highest tensile strength of 140.9 MPa, is achieved by water post-treatment. Moreover, post-treatment with 3% glycerol resulted in the highest elongation % at break, i.e., 14%. The uniformity of the monofilaments also increased after the post-treatments. The obtained monofilaments are compared with commercial fibers using Ashby's plots and potential applications are discussed. The wet spun monofilaments are located in the category of natural fibers in Ashby's plots. After water and glycerol treatments, the properties shifted toward metals and elastomers, respectively. The compatibility of the monofilaments with human skin cells is supported by a biocompatibility assay. These findings demonstrate fungal monofilaments with tunable properties fitting a wide range of sustainable textiles applications.
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