# Mycelium-Based Thermal Insulation for Domestic Cooling Footprint Reduction: A Review
## 3 Mycelium as a Base for Thermal Insulation
### Mycelium: Insights into its Applications  
Mycelium-based materials are versatile biomaterials that have numerous applications across various industries. In medicine, these materials possess exceptional potential for wound healing, tissue engineering, and biosensors due to their remarkable biocompatibility, biodegradability, antimicrobial activity, antioxidant activity, and tunable mechanical properties. Within the cosmetics industry, mycelium-based materials offer an array of applications, including skin whitening, anti-aging, moisturizing, and sunscreen products, due to their unique properties, such as tyrosinase inhibition, collagen synthesis stimulation, water retention, and UV protection. Mycelium-based materials can be used for food packaging, cushioning, and insulation products due to their lightweight, porous, thermally insulating, fire-retardant, and water-repellent characteristics. Additionally, mycelium-based materials can be used in construction for building blocks, panels, tiles, bricks, and furniture products due to their acoustic absorption, thermal insulation, fire resistance, and aesthetic appeal properties [16]. Fungal Adaptations and Ecological Roles: Insights into Nutrient Exchange, Decomposition, and Bioremediation  
Fungi, like many microorganisms, are heterotrophic organisms. Therefore, they cannot manufacture their own food and must obtain organic nutrients from the external environment, absorbing them through their walls. Most mushrooms that thrive in forest  
Figure 3: Schematic representation of fungal life cycle [10]. environments are intricately connected to trees through a symbiotic relationship. This interaction, referred to as mycorrhiza, establishes a connection between the root extremities of trees and the vegetative structure of fungi (Figure 4). The mycorrhizal association is mutually advantageous, involving a reciprocal exchange of nutrients. One organism offers substances the other cannot produce or obtain directly from the soil. Broadly, mushrooms assist plants in acquiring minerals and water from the soil, while in return, plants provide the fungus with sugar compounds. Sapprophysim constitutes another significant ecological strategy among fungi, mainly observed in species thriving on grassy terrains, decaying wood, or organic waste. In this context, the fungal function primarily involves decomposition, as it metabolizes organic materials, concurrently replenishing nutrients in the soil. Finally, certain fungi adopt a parasitic lifestyle. Various forms of parasitic relationships can be observed, from species that target and inhabit viable hosts such as trees, plants, or insects without causing their demise to those that assail weakened hosts, consequently expediting their end. Typically, these parasitic fungi are microscopic mushrooms. Most gourmet mushrooms are saprophytic, wood-decomposing fungi, and they are the premier recyclers on the planet. The mycelial network is designed to weave between and through the cell walls of plants. Fungi are fascinating and mysterious organisms that mycologists study to discover their secrets. Fungi can act as filters or departures for polluted soils. In industrialized areas, soils are contaminated by various pollutants (petroleum-based compounds, heavy metals, pesticides, etc.) and even radioactive wastes. Mushrooms can absorb toxins into their tissue, including heavy metals, but they become inedible. Some species can be used to clean up contaminated environments through bioremediation. Different techniques have been patented in the last 15 years, and different bioremediation companies have been established to deal with toxic waste [17]. The contemporary world is grappling with a substantial challenge in curtailing its energy consumption attributed to cooling, a critical constituent of the residential carbon footprint. Conventional cooling strategies, primarily reliant on air conditioning paradigms, engender elevated energy usage, thus yielding consequential environmental and socioeconomic ramifications.