Fungal textiles: Wet spinning of fungal microfibers to produce monofilament yarns

The cell wall of a zygomycetes fungus was successfully wet spun into monofilament yarns and demonstrated as novel resource for production sustainable textiles. Furthermore, the could be cultivated on bread waste, an abundant food waste with large negative environmental impact if not further utilized. Rhizopus delemar first in bubble column bioreactor. fungal collected through alkali treatment biomass contained 36 23% glucosamine N-acetyl representing chitosan chitin wall, respectively. amino groups were protonated by utilizing acetic or lactic acid. This resulted formation uniform hydrogel microfibers. obtained ethanol coagulation bath to form aggregated monofilament, which finally dried. SEM images confirmed alignment microfibers along axis. monofilaments had tensile strengths up 69.5 MPa Young's modulus 4.97 GPa. work demonstrates environmentally benign procedure fabricate renewable fibers from opens window creation