According to my research shark’s skin has a structure that prevents the bacteria. I am planing to mimic this property. Medical bandage highly benefits from the material being antibacterial. Designing in home conditions, I have to look for alternatives. I came across to the website that was telling about growing microbial cellulose. Material which is hemostatic (stops bleeding), antibacterial, breathable and water proof. In a way it resembles leather.
Read in more detail here:
Once I found out that the recipe is so easy and in fact I have all the ingredients at home, I couldn’t stop but try. To grow material at home? What a great opportunity to add to sustainable designing. The process won’t produce any waste, moreover the cellulose itself is 100 biodegradable. And it’s so rewarding making something absolutely from scratch!
So let’s get started. All I needed was 1l of boiling water, 4 teabags of green tea, 200ml of white sugar, 200g of apple cider vinegar and a kombucha scoby. I recorder the process here:
Now, I will only need to harvest the cellulose from the surface of the liquid in two weeks!
Two weeks passed and the cellulose seemed to be ready. I collected it form surface of the kombucha brew. Then, washed it with cold water and soap, and stretch it to dry on wood.
Wet cellulose really felt weird, had a texture sort of skin. When it dried, the thinner parts crumbled and the thicker parts were quite rigid and in my hands felt like a light leather. Had a vinegary and sweet smell. While it was growing it sort of creased in some parts, probably because I was moving the container sometimes. That gave a nice texture, but the surface shrank and at the end it was only a little bit more than A4 size cellulose when it dried.
Now I will try to give it a go to it while sampling! My antibacterial material is ready!
Love that you gave this a go, dyeing to find out if it worked? just great doing a video and experimenting with a process love this!.