Making electronics from mycelium

A skin fashioned from fungal mycelium—the network of filaments that absorb organic matter and nutrients to nourish mushrooms—can be used as a substrate for electronic devices. The discovery offers an environmentally friendly alternative to devices with tough-to-recycle polymer-based substrates.

Martin Kaltenbrunner and colleagues at Johannes Kepler University developed a way to grow the mycelium skin. They then used common electronics-processing techniques, including physical vapor deposition and laser patterning, to turn the mycelium skins into electronic devices (Sci. Adv. 2022, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.add7118).

In addition to being biodegradable, the MycelioTronics, as the group has named them, are flexible and capable of bending 2,000 times with little loss of performance. The researchers also used the mycelium skins to make batteries that powered a humidity and proximity sensor.

Developing biodegradable electronics will help cut down on electronic waste, says Prashant Sonar, an expert in electronics at Queensland University of Technology. “Such innovative, intelligent materials and devices will reduce our current environmental impact,” he says in an email.

Kaltenbrunner says his team is working on a process to make the mycelium skin in a way that is amenable to industrial scale-up.