Monday, December 06, 2021

Wood made foldable and stronger than steel

Amazing stuff! Knock on wood!

"Wood that can be moulded into complex shapes and sculpted into knives sharper than metal ones has been created by the inventors of bullet-proof and fire-retardant wood. ...
But scientists at the University of Maryland in the US have discovered ways to treat hardwood sheets and bulk timber so they can pretty much make whatever you want – nails, knives or honeycomb structures strong enough to support the weight of a car. ...
One of the new methods – treating hardwood sheets so that they can be folded into three-dimensional shapes – is as cost-efficient as making the same shapes with plastic or metal ...
‘We show that a [hardened wood] table knife can be made nearly three times sharper than commercial table knives,’ the researchers wrote. The material can also be used to make wooden nails, which work the same as steel nails but don’t rust. ..."

From the two abstracts:
"... We report a processing strategy that uses cell wall engineering to shape flat sheets of hardwood into versatile three-dimensional (3D) structures. After breaking down wood’s lignin component and closing the vessels and fibers by evaporating water, we partially re-swell the wood in a rapid water-shock process that selectively opens the vessels. This forms a distinct wrinkled cell wall structure that allows the material to be folded and molded into desired shapes. The resulting 3D-molded wood is six times stronger than the starting wood and comparable to widely used lightweight materials such as aluminum alloys. ..."

"... We demonstrate a potential low-cost and sustainable hard material made from natural wood. Through a simple and effective approach, bulk natural wood can be processed into a hardened wood (HW) with a 23-fold increase in hardness. To demonstrate the potential applications of HW, we show that an HW table knife can be made nearly three times sharper than commercial table knives. An HW nail can be as functional as a steel nail with comparable performance but is immune from rusting, a key failure mechanism of steel nails. ..."

Wood made foldable and stronger than steel | Research | Chemistry World Next-level modification sees natural material made into knives, nails and honeycomb structures that can carry the weight of a car





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