The story of transparent wood

Transparent wood was created back in 1992 when German

researcher Siegfried Fink sought to reveal the specific cavities in
wood for the purpose of writing a book on a functional study of wood
structure. This work inspired engineers from the Swedish Royal
Institute of Technology, who collaborated with a research group at the
University of Maryland, to start exploring the possibilities of creating
transparent wood for more widespread use. The publication of the first
results, as well as samples of transparent wood blocks last year,
sparked the interest of many architects and engineers around the
globe. The road to the final stages of development for this novel
material is coming to an end.

How to make transparent wood

The key concept is to remove the organic polymer called “lignin” from
the wood, which is the substance responsible for the wood’s brownish
colouring. To achieve this targeted chemical removal, while keeping
the rest of the material intact, the scientists follow a procedure that is
similar to chemical pulping. This involves immersing the wood piece in
a solution of water, sodium hydroxide and sodium sulphite and boiling
it for about two hours.

Once all lignin has been removed, the wood becomes transparent
although it is also very fragile. This is because lignin is what gives
wood its rigidity since this polymer is a primary element of the cell
walls. To compensate for this loss, scientists re-immerse the block in
a new solution that consists of a special mix of epoxies that fill the
emptied microscopic channels of the wood. These strengthen the
wood while maintaining its transparency and biodegradability. This
process lasts for about an hour, with the pressure in the bath
interchanging from positive to negative in order to make sure that all
wood channels are completely filled with the epoxy.

Advantages and possible applications

The resulting wood composite is much stronger than natural
wood and allows up to 90% of light to pass through it. The material
has the practical utilisation potential to replace glass and plastic
materials in a myriad of possible applications. Some of the most
notable first application examples include:

 Replace glass windows on buildings – allowing the use of fewer

frame elements since the composite wood can withstand loads
much better than glass does. In addition to this, composite wood
is immensely better in terms of thermal insulation when
compared to glass, so it will likely have a hugely positive effect
on the energy efficiency of buildings in the future.
 Solar panels and solar cells can be equipped with composite
wood that has a high light transmittance, better durability
against environmental damage such as hail and the capacity to
implement “light trapping” properties that reflect light back to
the cells. This will reduce the rate of escaping rays and increase
the energy efficiency of the panels.
 Since wood is very light compared to steel, but also very strong
with the addition of the epoxies and polymers, transparent wood
may also be utilised as a key structural element by itself. We
have already seen the implementation of a model house with its
ceiling and roof being made by transparent wood. This combines
unprecedented thermal insulation and structural integrity.
 High-end sports equipment such as archery bows, various sticks
and clubs, tennis rackets, etc can all potentially benefit from the
added strength of transparent wood with no additional weight.
 Wood is already a popular choice of material for fuselages and
wings for small aircraft. As transparent wood is so much
stronger we will likely see many significant developments in this
field.

Current drawbacks
The main problem at this time is that development funding for
transparent wood is running low. As a consequence research teams
are being forced to spend time convincing potential investors about
the usability potential of the material. The fact it is also unclear how
best to achieve mass production in a cost-efficient manner is not
helping at this point in time. However, when balancing the benefits of
transparent wood with production costs going forward there are still
high hopes for the future.
In an era of glass and steel construction, wood may seem old-school. But now
researchers say they have given timber a makeover to produce a material that is
not only sturdy, but also transparent and able to store and release heat.

The researchers say the material could be used in the construction of energy-
efficient homes, and that they hope to develop a biodegradable version to
increase its eco-friendly credentials as an alternative to plastic, glass or even
cement.

“We prepared a material that is multifunctional – it can transmit light very well
and also it can store heat. We combined these two functions in a single material,”
said Céline Montanari of the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
Montanari is presenting the work at the spring national meeting of the American
Chemical Society in Orlando.

To produce the material, the team built on previous work in which they took
balsa wood and removed its lignin – a component of wood that gives it strength
and colour. Acrylic, which is non-biodegradable and water-repellent, was
introduced into the remaining tissues where it filled both the tiny pores left by
the removal of lignin and the hollow vessels that carried water in the tree. That,
said Montanari, not only helped maintain the wood’s structure but also restored
its strength and improved its optical properties. The upshot was a frosted-looking
wood-based material.

In the latest work the acrylic was mixed with another substance called
polyethylene glycol, which permeates wood well. Crucially, polyethylene glycol
also has another feature: when it is heated it absorbs energy and melts, but when
temperatures fall it hardens, releasing energy in the process. The team say this
property means their wood-based material, which goes from semi-transparent to
transparent when warmed, could be used to make buildings more energy-
efficient, with energy captured from the sun during the day released later into the
interior.

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“If you take 100g of this transparent wood material with the [polyethylene glycol]
inside, it can absorb up to 8,000J of heat, which corresponds to basically what a
1W [bulb] could produce in two hours,” said Montanari, adding that different
types of polyethylene glycol melt at different temperatures so the team could
tweak the transparent wood’s properties to its application.

Materials containing substances that can store and release heat in such a way are
not a new idea in the construction industry, with various types on offer as a novel
form of insulation to reduce energy consumption. But the team say their
approach is different because it uses a natural material that reduces the need for
oil-based materials and related CO2 emissions.

However, Montanari said there was plenty of work still to do – including

replacing the acrylic with a biodegradable alternative for some applications,
scaling up production of the material, and carrying out computer models of
buildings to see how transparent wood compares with glass.

Mark Miodownik, professor of materials and society at University College

London, who was not involved in the research, cautioned against engineering the
material to be biodegradable, saying it would make the wood less
environmentally sustainable, not more.

“We need construction materials to be carbon sinks and so they need to be

recyclable and reusable, not biodegradable,” he said, adding that one possibility
would be for the new type of timber to be recovered from buildings and used in
new projects, similar to the way steel is used in “modular construction”.
While Miodownik added that the material appeared to be a “solution looking for
a problem”, he said such an approach has precedent, noting that it is “how many
materials have got invented in the past”.

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New developments have been made in the study of transparent wood, which
first made waves in March 2016 when Swedish researchers at KTH
Royal Institute of Technology discovered that they were able to
remove the lignin in wood, the molecule that makes it rigid and dark in color,
and replace it with epoxy.
 
Engineers at the University of Maryland demonstrated later that year that
windows made of transparent wood could provide more even and consistent
natural lighting and better energy efficiency than glass.