Recent advancements in the collaboration between two scientific disciplines--fungal biotechnology and materials sciences--underscore the potential of fungal mycelium as renewable resource for ...sustainable biomaterials that can be harnessed in different industries. As fungal mycelium can be biotechnologically obtained from different filamentous fungi and is as a material very versatile, respective research and commercial application should be thriving. However, some granted patents in the field of fungal mycelium-based materials have caused uncertainty in the community as to which subject matter is patent-protected and for how long the protection is expected to last. This opinion paper therefore maps the patent landscape of fungal mycelium-based materials with a specific focus on technical applications including building construction, insulation, packaging, and the like. We provide an overview of granted patents (73) and pending applications (34) related to granted patents, the dominant patent portfolios (five, with the number of patents and/or applications per owner between six and 44), the patent owners, and highlight the key claims formulated to protect the inventions. Additionally, we outline various options towards an increased activity in the field. Patent developments in the field leave the impression that fungal materials, despite their high potential as renewable and biodegradable materials, have been held back due to patent over-protection. Considering the need for replacing current petroleum-based materials with renewable biomaterials, coordinated efforts may be called for to intensify efforts in the field.
Iron oxide nanoflowers (IONFs) that display singular magnetic properties can be synthesized through a polyol route first introduced almost 2 decades ago by Caruntu et al, presenting a multi‐core ...morphology in which several grains (around 10 nm) are attached together and sintered. These outstanding properties are of great interest for magnetic field hyperthermia, which is considered as a promising therapy against cancer. Although of significantly smaller diameter, the specific adsorption rate (SAR) of IONFs reach values as large as for “magnetosomes” that are natural magnetic nanoparticles typically ~40 nm found in certain bacteria, which can be grown artificially but with much lower yield compared to chemical synthesis such as the polyol route. This work aims at better understanding the structure‐property relationships, linking the internal IONF nanostructure as observed by HR‐TEM to their magnetic properties. A library of mono‐ and multicore IONFs is presented, with diameters ranging from 11 to 30 nm in a narrow size distribution. More particularly, by relating their structural features to their magnetic properties investigated by utilizing AC magnetometry over a wide range of alternating magnetic field conditions, we showed that the SAR values of all synthesized batches vary with overall diameter and number of constituting cores.
In recent studies, critical research interest exists in the thermo-mechanical analysis of the friction stir welding (FSW) process by numerical simulation. In this review, the thermo-mechanical ...analysis for FSW is overviewed regarding the computational approaches, the heat generation, the temperature, and the material flow behavior. Current concerns, challenges, and opportunities in current studies are discussed considering the application of the thermo-mechanical analysis. Generally, larger computational scale and better computational efficiency are required to allow better spatial resolution in future analysis. The concepts and approaches demonstrated in the thermo-mechanical analysis for FSW open up quantitative prospects for the design of the FSW process.
•Proposed a design structure with an array of pyramidal nanostructures for solar radiation absorption.•The nanostructure is made of a natural hyperbolic metamaterial Bi2Te3 on a substrate submerged ...in water.•Predicted an absorptance exceeding 99.9% from 300 to 2400 nm based on the design.•Explained the underlying mechanisms by the slow-light and gradient index effects.•Performed a parametric study to analyze the geometry and material’s effects.
A perfect absorber design is proposed here that uses a periodic array of pyramidal nanostructures, made from a natural hyperbolic material bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) on a substrate. A numerical study is carried out to investigate the absorption of solar radiation and to determine the suitable ranges of the geometric parameters for the proposed structure submerged in water. The results show that the proposed structure can achieve absorptance values greater than 99.9% in the wavelength range of 300–2400 nm, which covers most of the solar radiation spectrum. The underlying mechanisms are attributed to the combination of the slow-light effect and the gradient index effect. Optical properties of this type of absorber are affected by the geometry of the nanostructure (such as the height and the top and bottom widths of the pyramid), the distance between two adjacent pyramids, as well as the material and thickness of the substrate. Nevertheless, extremely high absorptance can be achieved even with some variations of these parameters. This study could open a route for effectively harvesting solar energy in photothermal conversion processes in water.
The WC/CoCrFeNiAl
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high-entropy alloy (HEA) composites were prepared through high-gravity combustion synthesis. The preparation method is presented below. First, using a designed suitable ...multiphase thermite system, the molten CoCrFeNiAl
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HEA was fabricated using low-cost metal oxides. The molten HEA was subsequently infiltrated into the WC layer to fabricate WC/CoCrFeNiAl
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composites in a high-gravity field. The porosity of the WC/CoCrFeNiAl
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composites was down-regulated, and their compressive yield strength was up-regulated when the high-gravity field was increased from 600g to 1500g because this infiltration process of a HEA melt into the WC layer is driven by centrifugal force. The WC particles in the composites exhibited a gradient distribution along the direction of the centrifugal force, which was attributed to the combined action of the high-gravity field and the temperature gradient field. The Vickers hardness of the sample was down-regulated from 9.53 to 7.41 GPa along the direction of the centrifugal force.
Inspired by the cross-laminated hierarchical structure and flexible interface of high toughness Strombus gigas shell, the "fiber-metal-polymer" laminated composites with different laying modes ...including cross-laminated structure and interfacial properties were designed, and the corresponding damage and toughening mechanisms were investigated. It shows that the cross-laminated structure, accompanying soft interface modification by metal ultra-thin strip and polymer can optimize the full-field stress distribution and failure behavior, then achieve maximize energy absorption and ensure good strength (ultimate strain and toughness increased to 352% and 127.5%, respectively compared to unidirectional laminated material), which may provide optimization strategies for the design of lightweight composites.
Effects of adding microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) and cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) were evaluated relative to the mechanical, thermal, morphological, and structural properties of rigid polyurethanes ...(rPUs). The composites were prepared with the blending of polyols/isocyanates and the cellulosic fillers at 0.25%, 0.5%, and 1% loadings. Scanning electron microscopic images showed that the samples had micro-scaled porosity, with cell sizes ranging from 250 to 800 nm. The fillers improved the mechanical strengths and modulus of neat rPUs due to the presence of the nano-sized cells in rPUs matrix. The addition of both fillers generally did not provide a positive effect on the thermal properties, and the weight loss generally increased while the loading rate of the fillers was increased from 0.25% to 1%. The samples had two small crystalline peaks at 18° and 19° according to the X-ray diffraction analysis. From the results, it can be said that the presence of both fillers generally improved all properties of the neat rPUs, and the effects of CNC on the properties were higher than MCC due to both lower particle size and the higher crystallinity of CNC.
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