A team of engineers at Montana State University has used living fungal mycelium and bacterial cells to create a self-healing building material, offering a greener alternative to conventional concrete.
The development of a self-healing building material
This material can remain alive at low temperatures and was designed to self-repair for over a month . This makes it an attractive option compared to other biomaterials that typically have a much shorter lifespan.
Biomineralized materials do not have the strength to replace concrete in all applications, but we and others are working to improve their properties so they can be more widely used.
Chelsea Heveran, assistant professor at Montana State University.
What’s fascinating about this project is its ability to self-repair, and its potential for other useful functions, such as remediating contamination, as the bacteria within the material remain active for longer periods of time. In this sense, the team hopes that future advances will allow these materials to continue evolving to fulfill more complex functions.
The use of fungal mycelium as a scaffold for biomineralized materials also opens the door to new forms of materials engineering, with complex architectures inspired by natural structures like cortical bone. Such materials have a potential impact on reducing CO₂ emissions and could improve sustainable construction in the future.
In the next stage of the project, the team hopes to continue refining these materials so they can be manufactured on a larger scale and further optimize their properties for broader applications. Heveran’s vision is to replace the most polluting building materials, such as cement , with alternatives that help reduce the global carbon footprint.
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Source and photo: EurekAlert
