{"id":51052,"date":"2018-03-14T07:35:31","date_gmt":"2018-03-14T06:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=51052"},"modified":"2018-03-12T14:38:31","modified_gmt":"2018-03-12T13:38:31","slug":"wood-stronger-than-most-metals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wood-stronger-than-most-metals\/","title":{"rendered":"Wood Stronger Than Most Metals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Engineers at the University of Maryland have found a way to make wood more than ten times times stronger and tougher than before, creating a natural substance that is stronger than many titanium alloys.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"wood\"
Liangbing Hu (left) holds a block of wood transformed by a new process to become stronger than rivals titanium & tougher than steel. Teng Li (right) holds an untreated block of the same wood. Image Credit: University of Maryland.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThis new way to treat wood makes it twelve times stronger than natural wood and ten times tougher,\u201d said Liangbing Hu, the leader of the team that did the research, published in the journal Nature<\/em><\/a>. \u201cThis could be a competitor to steel or even titanium alloys, it is so strong and durable. It\u2019s also comparable to carbon fiber, but much less expensive.\u201d Hu is an associate professor of materials science and engineering and a member of the Maryland Energy Innovation Institute.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is both strong and tough, which is a combination not usually found in nature,\u201d said Teng Li, the co-leader of the team and the Samuel P. Langley Professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland. His team measured the dense wood\u2019s mechanical properties.\u00a0 \u201cIt is as strong as steel, but six times lighter. It takes 10 times more energy to fracture than natural wood. It can even be bent and molded at the beginning of the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s process begins by removing the wood\u2019s lignin, the part of the wood that makes it both rigid and brown in color. Then it is compressed under mild heat, at about 150 F. This causes the cellulose fibers to become very tightly packed. Any defects like holes or knots are crushed together.\u00a0 The treatment process was extended a little further with a coat of paint.<\/p>\n

The scientists found that the wood\u2019s fibers are pressed together so tightly that they can form strong hydrogen bonds, like a crowd of people who can\u2019t budge \u2013 who are also holding hands. The compression makes the wood five times thinner than its original size.<\/p>\n

\"Bildschirmfoto
Magnified images of (1) untreated wood and (2) the same wood treated by a new process invented by engineers at the University of Maryland that compresses the natural structures of wood into a new material five times thinner. Image Credit: University of Maryland.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The team tested their new wood material and natural wood by shooting bullet-like projectiles at it. The projectile blew straight through the natural wood. The fully treated wood stopped the projectile partway through.<\/p>\n

\u201cSoft woods like pine or balsa, which grow fast and are more environmentally friendly, could replace slower-growing but denser woods like teak, in furniture or buildings,\u201d Hu said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe paper provides a highly promising route to the design of light weight high performance structural materials, with tremendous potential for a broad range of applications where high strength, large toughness and superior ballistic resistance are desired, \u201c said Dr. Huajian Gao, a professor at Brown University, who was not involved in the study. \u201cIt is particularly exciting to note that the method is versatile for various species of wood and fairly easy to implement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis kind of wood could be used in cars, airplanes, buildings \u2013 any application where steel is used,\u201d Hu said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe two-step process reported in this paper achieves exceptionally high strength, much beyond what [is] reported in the literature,\u201d said Dr. Zhigang Suo, a professor of mechanics and materials at Harvard University, also not involved with the study. \u201cGiven the abundance of wood, as well as other cellulose-rich plants, this paper inspires imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most outstanding observation, in my view, is the existence of a limiting concentration of lignin, the glue between wood cells, to maximize the mechanical performance of the densified wood. Too little or too much removal lower the strength compared to a maximum value achieved at intermediate or partial lignin removal. This reveals the subtle balance between hydrogen bonding and the adhesion imparted by such polyphenolic compound. Moreover, of outstanding interest, is the fact that that wood densification leads to both, increased strength and toughness, two properties that usually offset each other,\u201d said Orlando J. Rojas, a professor at Aalto University in Finland.<\/p>\n

Hu\u2019s research has explored the capacities of wood\u2019s natural nanotechnology. They previously made a range of emerging technologies out of nanocellulose related materials: (1) super clear paper for replacing plastic; (2) photonic paper for improving solar cell efficiency by 30%; (3) a battery and a supercapacitor out of wood; (4) a battery from a leaf; (5) transparent wood for energy efficient buildings; (6) solar water desalination for drinking<\/a> and specifically filtering out toxic dyes<\/a>. These wood-based emerging technologies are being commercialized through a UMD spinoff company, Inventwood LLC.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About the University of Maryland<\/h3>\n

The University of Maryland, College Park is the state’s flagship university and one of the nation’s preeminent public research universities. A global leader in research, entrepreneurship and innovation, the university is home to more than 40,000 students, 10,000 faculty and staff, and 280 academic programs. Its faculty includes two Nobel laureates, three Pulitzer Prize winners, 60 members of the national academies and scores of Fulbright scholars. The institution has a $1.9 billion operating budget and secures $514 million annually in external research funding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Engineers at the University of Maryland have found a way to make wood more than ten times times stronger and tougher than before, creating a natural substance that is stronger than many titanium alloys. \u201cThis new way to treat wood makes it twelve times stronger than natural wood and ten times tougher,\u201d said Liangbing Hu, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[12430,6162],"supplier":[4428],"class_list":["post-51052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-buildingmaterial","tag-cellulose","supplier-university-of-maryland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51052\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51052"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=51052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}