Knock on (see-through) WOOD!

Where has the search for new technology led us? Scientists in Sweden and the U.S. say, to see- through wood. Yes, that’s right, wood that looks like glass.

Lars Berglund of the Wallenberg Wood Science at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and his team of innovative scientists constructed a two-stage procedure for extracting the colour of wood whilst hardening it. Their process is somewhat similar to that of scientists in the U.S.

Dr Liangbing Hu, a scientist at the University of Maryland (US) and his colleagues also developed a process of creating transparent timber. The method discussed in their journal Advanced Materials illustrates how to produce wood that is as clear as glass but is more efficient in its use. The see-through wood is stronger than glass and a better conductor of electricity than it too.

Hu and his team boiled a block of wood in water, sodium hydroxide and various other chemicals for a few hours to eliminate the lignin. Sodium hydroxide is an inorganic compound used to neutralize acids and in the production of soap and paper. Lignin is an organic substance found all through the cell walls of vascular plants producing their rigidity and giving them that rich shade of brown.

As the wood boils in the intricate solution, the wooden cabin that appears in your mind when you think of wood turns into a glass house in dire need of more curtains. At which point, the wood becomes as clear as glass, but still maintaining its cell structures. The final stage is to submerge the block of wood in epoxy to strengthen it considerably.

In the journal Advanced Materials by Dr Hu amongst others, the structures or rather the vertical channels that previously pumped ions, water and other elements through the wood stem to satisfy the requirements for photosynthesis, still remain present after this process.

The journal describes their findings when the process is applied to the wood trunk after it has been cut differently, i.e. radially or longitudinally. In their study, they first removed the lignin which led to the wood turning white due to the absence of light absorption. After which the cell lumina in the wood can permit quick infiltration of a specified polymer to reduce the light dispersal brought on by delignification. Leading to “glass wood”, a discovery that is sure to change the way wood is utilized in the future, after further research of course. However, scientists must first devise a way to apply that procedure to large pieces of wood. As of now, they are only able to apply it to wood measuring 5 by 5 inches with less than a centimetre width.

Wood is a highly useful material with various applications and this new advancement has only increased the long list of its uses. Firstly, transparent wood can be used in the construction of buildings and homes as well as furniture, which would change the way the construction industry works drastically. Secondly, it could be used as a structural material in all manner of motor vehicles and optoelectronics (area of technology dealing with the combination of electronics and light).

The see-through wood was also found to be more biodegradable than plastic making it very environmentally friendly and a welcomed addition to green energy technology i.e. as biomass.

Will this discovery stick? Most definitely, the applications alone are enough for scientists and the like to see where this discovery will lead them. What’s next? I say see-through-everything!

#wood #technology