Schematic to display the mesoporous structures in wood where the cell walls are aligned vertically. After lignin is removed and the index-matching polymer is filled in, the thick (up to centimeter) piece of wood becomes a highly transparent structural material. b) Pictures to show that wood becomes highly transparent after the two steps.
Materials scientist Liangbing Hu and his team at the University of Maryland, College Park, have removed the molecule in wood, lignin, that makes it rigid and dark in color. They left behind the colorless cellulose cell structures, filled them with epoxy, and came up with a version of the wood that is mostly see-thru. “It can be used in automobiles when the wood is made both transparent and high strength.” said Dr. Mingwei Zhu...
Read More
Recent Comments