Bacterial Spore-Based Hygromorphs: A Novel Active Material with Potential for Architectural Applications

Emily Birch, Ben Bridgens, Meng Zhang and Martyn Dade-Robertson
Additional contact information
Emily Birch: Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment, School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Newcastle University, Newcastle NE1 7RU, UK
Ben Bridgens: Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment, School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Newcastle University, Newcastle NE1 7RU, UK
Meng Zhang: Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment, School of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle NE1 8ST, UK
Martyn Dade-Robertson: Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment, School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Newcastle University, Newcastle NE1 7RU, UK

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 7, 1-19

Abstract: This paper introduces a new active material which responds to changes in environmental humidity. There has been growing interest in active materials which are able to respond to their environment, creating dynamic architectural systems without the need for energy input or complex systems of sensors and actuators. A subset of these materials are hygromorphs, which respond to changes in relative humidity (RH) and wetting through shape change. Here, we introduce a novel hygromorphic material in the context of architectural design, composed of multiple monolayers of microbial spores of Bacillus subtilis and latex sheets. Methods of fabrication and testing for this new material are described, showing that small actuators made from this material demonstrate rapid, reversible and repeatable deflection in response to changes in RH. It is demonstrated that the hygromorphic actuators are able to lift at least 150% of their own mass. Investigations are also extended to understanding this new biomaterial in terms of meaningful work.

Keywords: active material; bacterial spore; hygromorph; responsive material (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/7/4030/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/7/4030/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:7:p:4030-:d:530442

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().