Regenerated isotropic wood

Qing-Fang Guan; Zi-Meng Han; Huai-Bin Yang; Zhang-Chi Ling; Shu-Hong Yu

doi:10.1093/nsr/nwaa230

Regenerated isotropic wood

Natl Sci Rev. 2020 Sep 19;8(7):nwaa230. doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwaa230. eCollection 2021 Jul.

Authors

Qing-Fang Guan¹, Zi-Meng Han¹, Huai-Bin Yang¹, Zhang-Chi Ling¹, Shu-Hong Yu¹

Affiliation

¹ Division of Nanomaterials & Chemistry, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Institute of Energy, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Department of Chemistry, Institute of Biomimetic Materials & Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.

Abstract

Construction of sustainable high-performance structural materials is a core part of the key global sustainability goal. Many efforts have been made in this field; however, challenges remain in terms of lowering costs by using all-green basic building blocks and improving mechanical properties to meet the demand of practical applications. Here, we report a robust and efficient bottom-up strategy with micro/nanoscale structure design to regenerate an isotropic wood from natural wood particles as a high-performance sustainable structural material. Regenerated isotropic wood (RGI-wood) exceeds the limitations of the anisotropic and inconsistent mechanical properties of natural wood, having isotropic flexural strength of ∼170 MPa and flexural modulus of ∼10 GPa. RGI-wood also shows superior water resistance and fire retardancy properties to natural pine wood. Mass production of large sized RGI-wood and functional RGI-wood nanocomposites can also be achieved.

Keywords: bottom-up strategy; cellulose nanofiber; micro/nanoscale structure design; sustainable structural materials; wood material.