{"id":49462,"date":"2018-01-23T07:20:54","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T06:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=49462"},"modified":"2018-01-23T13:10:18","modified_gmt":"2018-01-23T12:10:18","slug":"new-research-finds-that-mould-can-infiltrate-and-weaken-bio-composite-materials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/new-research-finds-that-mould-can-infiltrate-and-weaken-bio-composite-materials\/","title":{"rendered":"New research finds that mould can infiltrate and weaken bio-composite materials"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"mold-blog\"
UBC researcher Bryn Crawford holds a sample sheet made with flax bio-waste. The black spots on the sheet indicate mould growth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mould on a substance will affect its strength and durability<\/h3>\n

When something goes mouldy in the fridge, it is annoying and wasteful.<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, at UBC Okanagan\u2019s School of Engineering, mould is proving increasingly important in the domain of engineering materials and can lead to early deterioration and structural failure. This is especially the case as manufacturers adopt more bio-derived materials in the drive towards a greener future, explains researcher Bryn Crawford.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At UBC\u2019s Okanagan campus, a multi-disciplinary team of researchers from the Composites Research Network and the Department of Biology, in collaboration with MIT and the National Research Council of Canada, have been studying the development and application of bio-sourced composites\u2014specifically flax and hemp fibres. These materials are plentiful in Canada and can be mixed with other materials to create cheaper, recyclable, and effective composite material products that are used by a range of industries, including in transportation.<\/p>\n

\u201cCanada has a lot of biomass that can be used to produce materials that are both light and inexpensive,\u201d explains Crawford. \u201cWe\u2019re looking at ways of using biomass in engineering, but there is a level of natural deterioration in these products that is still not fully understood.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the study, researchers conducted a number of experiments to determine if and when mould will grow on bio-materials and how it might affect the final product.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we bring microbiology into engineering, it raises some extra questions; some questions we\u2019ve never thought about before,\u201d says Crawford. \u201cBut because we\u2019re now using biological matter, we have to think of fungal growth and how this fungal growth will affect a product.\u201d<\/p>\n

The research team examined flax and hemp fibres alongside other natural materials to determine what would happen over time to these fibres. They created \u2018fibre sheets\u2019 and then added fungi to some, water to others, and left another group of sheets untreated.<\/p>\n

Crawford says they are not surprised that the materials grew mould; the idea of the project was to determine the types of environment where the fungal spores would grow and then test mechanical properties of the affected materials. The team conducted a variety of tests examining them for strength, stiffness, or the amount of energy that can be absorbed before the materials failed. They also used scanning electron microscopy to take an extreme close-up of the interior of the sample to determine fungal growth patterns, examine fractures, and failure zones.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a huge experiment and we found that in both the hemp and flax fibres, when no fungi were added, we still had fungi growing,\u201d Crawford adds. \u201cBasically, when raw natural fibres are exposed to high relative humidity, mould will grow and the potential for premature structural failure can occur.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crawford says that this susceptibility to mould growth is important for supply chains and factories to understand and manage in order to ensure they\u2019re creating robust products.<\/p>\n

\u201cBio-composites made from natural fibres are good for both the environment and the economy and could help usher in the next revolution in manufacturing. More inter-disciplinary research of this kind is vital to producing high-quality and durable bio-materials that help make that leap.\u201d<\/p>\n

The research was recently published in Materials and was partially funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Fonds de recherche du Qu\u00e9bec\u2014Nature et technologies. It was conducted in collaboration with Sepideh Pakpour, Negin Kazemian, John Klironomos, Karen Stoeffler, Denis Rho, Joanne Denault and Abbas Milani.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About UBC’s Okanagan campus<\/h3>\n

UBC\u2019s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning in the heart of British Columbia\u2019s stunning Okanagan Valley. Ranked among the top 20 public universities in the world, UBC is home to bold thinking and discoveries that make a difference. Established in 2005,\u00a0the\u00a0Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mould on a substance will affect its strength and durability When something goes mouldy in the fridge, it is annoying and wasteful. However, at UBC Okanagan\u2019s School of Engineering, mould is proving increasingly important in the domain of engineering materials and can lead to early deterioration and structural failure. This is especially the case as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[11286,11877],"supplier":[1936,3672,14134,1843],"class_list":["post-49462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-biocomposites","tag-naturalfibres","supplier-massachusetts-institute-of-technology","supplier-natural-sciences-and-engineering-research-council-of-canada-nserc","supplier-ubcs-okanagan-campus","supplier-university-of-british-columbia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49462\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49462"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=49462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}