The material is being exploited for smartphone screens, insulated windows, and more.
Why scientists are making transparent wood / The results are amazing, that a piece of wood can be as strong as glass::The material is being exploited for smartphone screens, insulated windows, and more.
Tried and succeeded. Honestly I was thinking about the possibilities if he used the same treatment technique to glue the boards, and if he criss-crossed the grains like plywood. The biggest weakness of the composite boards seemed to be how well they were glued.
Like I absolutely wasn't expecting it to stop a real calibre, but there seemed to be a critical thickness where even 9mm practically bounced off.
Also I'm really impressed with how simple the process was to replicate. Seems like the basic idea is, "the wood's not alive anymore so we can strip out all the stuff it doesn't need and just leave the structural fibres".
To be fair, he's more chemist than mechanical engineer. He got the chemistry down right away, but post-processing took a bit longer than I think it should have (speaking as a mechanical engineer...)
The idea to confine it sideways definitely seemed to take longer to appear than I thought it would. Like, yeah man, if you squish it, it'll spread out. But maybe he was reluctant to add complexity when he didn't have any experience designing parts like that. Also I wonder what would happen if it was confined both ways and then criss-crossed like plywood with multiple layers in a single pressing.
Not seeing how windows would be a good use. We already have safety glass and materials to make glass is more plentiful. Display screens make sense if the material ends up as hard as glass but won’t shatter. That would be fantastic.
The materials scientist, who works at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, specializes in polymer composites and was interested in creating a more robust alternative to transparent plastic.
“I truly believe this material has a promising future,” says Qiliang Fu, a wood nanotechnologist at Nanjing Forestry University in China who worked in Berglund’s lab as a graduate student.
To create see-through wood, scientists first need to modify or get rid of the glue, called lignin, that holds the cell bundles together and provides trunks and branches with most of their earthy brown hues.
Filling the air pockets with a substance like epoxy resin that bends light to a similar degree to the cell walls renders the wood transparent.
The slim profile and strength of the material means it could be a great alternative to products made from thin, easily shattered cuts of plastic or glass, such as display screens.
But most research has centered on transparent wood as an architectural feature, with windows a particularly promising use, says Prodyut Dhar, a biochemical engineer at the Indian Institute of Technology Varanasi.
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