Abstract
Fungi-derived leather substitutes are an emerging class of ethically and environmentally responsible fabrics that are increasingly meeting consumer aesthetic and functional expectations and winning favour as an alternative to bovine and synthetic leathers. While traditional leather and its alternatives are sourced from animals and synthetic polymers, these renewable sustainable leather substitutes are obtained through the upcycling of low-cost agricultural and forestry by-products into chitinous polymers and other polysaccharides using a natural and carbon-neutral biological fungal growth process. Following physical and chemical treatment, these sheets of fungal biomass visually resemble leather and exhibit comparable material and tactile properties.
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Acknowledgements
M.J. was sponsored by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship at RMIT University. Funding from the University of Vienna is also acknowledged.
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M.J. contributed to the conceptualization, investigation, formal analysis and writing of the original draft. A.G., S.J. and A.B. edited the manuscript. A.B. supervised the project.
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Jones, M., Gandia, A., John, S. et al. Leather-like material biofabrication using fungi. Nat Sustain 4, 9–16 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-00606-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-00606-1
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