Lightweight, strong, moldable wood via cell wall engineering as a sustainable structural material

Xiao, Shaoliang; Chen, Chaoji; Xia, Qinqin; Liu, Yu; Yao, Yuan; Chen, Qiongyu; Hartsfield, Matt; Brozena, Alexandra; Tu, Kunkun; Eichhorn, Stephen J.; Yao, Yonggang; Li, Jianguo; Gan, Wentao; Shi, Sheldon Q.; Yang, Vina W.; Lo Ricco, Marco; Zhu, J. Y.; Burgert, Ingo; Luo, Alan; Li, Teng; Hu, Liangbing

doi:10.1126/science.abg9556

Lightweight, strong, moldable wood via cell wall engineering as a sustainable structural material

Journal Article · 22 October 2021 · Science

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abg9556· OSTI ID:1980728

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Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
Center for Industrial Ecology, Yale School of the Environment, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
Wood Materials Science, Institute for Building Materials, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland.; WoodTec Group, Cellulose &, Wood Materials, Empa, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland.
Bristol Composites Institute, CAME School of Engineering, University of Bristol, University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TR, UK.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203, USA.
US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, WI 53726, USA.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.; Center for Materials Innovation, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.

Turning wood into honeycombs

Wood is an attractive material for structural applications, but it usually works best as boards or sheets. Xiaoet al. have developed a process for engineering hardwood that allows these sheets to be manipulated into complex structures (see the Perspective by Tajvidi and Gardner). The key is to manipulate the cell wall structure by shrinking and blasting open the fibers and vessels by drying and “water-shocking” them. This process creates a window wherein the wood can be manipulated without ripping or tearing. Honeycomb, corrugated, or other complex structures are locked in once the wood dries. —BG

Research Organization:: Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)

DOE Contract Number:: AR0001025

OSTI ID:: 1980728

Journal Information:: Science, Vol. 374, Issue 6566; ISSN 0036-8075

Publisher:: AAAS

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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