One of the many miracles of the 21st century is that you can get almost everything that is delivered directly to your threshold. Click the button on the computer screen, and you can have a modern espresso machine or a bottle of wine or just another toilet paper roll, if your current one is there. The downside, however, is all transport related to transport, especially those in the form of polystyrene and plastic. But now scientists have found a way to mix fragments of coffee and mushrooms to create a substance to print in 3D and in full composting, which can offer an ecological alternative to polystyrene.
As reported Tech XploreThe modern composite is the creation of Danla Luo, a doctoral student for design and engineering focused on man at the University of Washington, whose discoveries have recently been published in the journal . In the case of substances, Luo combines coffee coffee grounds wealthy in nutrients with brown rice flour, Reishi mushroom spores, xantam rubber and water to create “Mykofluid” paste. The paste can then be used for 3D printing using a specially built printer head, which Luo and Team also made.
After printing the desired shape, the object is placed in a plastic bath for 10 days, where it is enclosed in a mushroom, difficult, waterproof and lithe material that arises before the fungus produces a fungus. Then the piece is left to droughty for one day, stopping the growth of mushrooms. The resulting product is heavier than polystyrene and is “as mighty and difficult as polystyrene and extended polystyrene foam, a substance used to create polystyrene.”
Pastowa Mycofluid also has other beneficial properties for 3D printing. It allows you to print more elaborate patterns on many pieces, which, in combination in a plastic bathtub, combines a separate pieces into one object.
But there are disadvantages. For example, the extended creation time can be complex. The creation of a piece of polystyrene takes only a few minutes, so 11 days may be too impractical for mass adoption. There was a problem with scaling, due to the pasture requirement “relatively homogenised used coffee areas”. For this purpose, Luo and Team examine other recycled materials – such as food waste – which can be suitable for creating a similar paste.
Despite this, this is another promising advantage in a more balanced future, thanks to coffee again.
