Scientists develop transparent wood that is stronger and lighter than glass

[dogknob]

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/scientists-develop-transparent-wood-that-is-stronger-and-lighter-than-glass-1.5902739

Wood is made of two basic ingredients: cellulose, which are tiny fibres, and lignin, which bonds those fibres together to give it strength.

Early attempts to make transparent wood involved removing the lignin, but this involved hazardous chemicals, high temperatures and a lot of time, making the product expensive and somewhat brittle. The new technique is so cheap and easy it could literally be done in a backyard.

More (+ photos) at link...
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/scientists-develop-transparent-wood-that-is-stronger-and-lighter-than-glass-1.5902739

[Phoenix61]

1. Dang! That would be fun to build with.

All kinds of cool things come to mind. Clear decks and stair case stringers, bunk bed frames, mail box posts, table bases.... where do I order?

[Bayard]

2. At first, I thought--why would you want transparent wood?

Then,
"As window material, it would be much more resistant to accidental breakage. The clear wood is lighter than glass, with better insulating properties, which is important because windows are a major source of heat loss in buildings. It also might take less energy to manufacture clear wood because there are no high temperatures involved.

Transparent wood could become an alternative to glass in energy efficient buildings, or perhaps coverings for solar panels in harsh environments. There could be no end of uses."

[electric_blue68]

7. Oooo, fascinating!

Remember when in 'The Voyage Home" Scotty talks to the Aluminum Plant Manager about 'transparent aluminum'?

Ha! Who thought wood would be first instead! 😄

[3catwoman3]

13. First thing I thought of!

I love that movie. It is my favorite of all the Trek movies.

"There be whales!"

[electric_blue68]

22. 👍 great movie one of my favs

[Gore1FL]

23. Transparent AL was first!

[electric_blue68]

28. Holy Crackers! I did not know this. Thanks!

😄 Particularly bc I'm a Trek fan, and The Voyage Home
is one of my favorite movies!

[bedazzled]

36. NOT NOW MADELINE!

i love nichols' "i quit smoking" button...

[dweller]

3. See through walls

could be fun 😁

✌🏻

[Xolodno]

4. That would sort of end the cliche...

...those in glass houses...

[Goodheart]

5. WTF!

Can I do this in my back yard? Amazing.

[soothsayer]

9. You can, but you won't be able to see the forest... or the trees

[Vivienne235729]

6. WOW. That will revolutionize buildings and homes as far as insulation goes.

So cool.

[lunatica]

8. Wow! That's really exciting!

It could probably work as a painting surface for artists too.

The idea that the trees would be saved is wonderful.

Boats with transparent bottoms! Huge skylights three or four times larger than the ones used now!

[soothsayer]

10. Are we going to kill more trees now? Or learn to be responsible somehow

[lunatica]

11. Well there's always the possibility that we might

actually learn to be responsible.

I say we keep trying.

[soothsayer]

12. Yes! Maybe we'll understand their value more better

[electric_blue68]

30. I was taken by the science. But this is true.

Well we need a hellaluv lot more trees anyway! Maybe there can be a responsible ratio of plantings for permanence, and planting for transparent wood.

But I really like the idea of using🎋bamboo instead of🌳trees! If it is possible. 🤞

[yuiyoshida]

14. No transparent aluminum?

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

17. There it is.

I was hoping someone would post that clip.

[NBachers]

18. Now you made me want to go watch that whole movie! I'm trying to clean my apartment!

[yuiyoshida]

20. Rent it!!

On ps4 I can rent a movie for 28 days...or just watch it and return it

[Happy Hoosier]

32. Et voila!

https://ceramics.org/ceramic-tech-today/ceramic-video/video-transparent-aluminum-from-star-trek-to-reality

[yuiyoshida]

34. Sou KA!!! Arigatou gozaimashita!

[Happy Hoosier]

35. Awesome NT

[lapfog_1]

15. make that transparent aluminum

and you got yourself a Star Trek Movie..

"tell me where are the nukular wessels?"

[Kali]

16. hmmm

what is the proportions of bleached wood to epoxy?

[Kashkakat v.2.0]

19. what??? peroxide + sunlight + epoxy - so easy. Why hasnt this been thought of before???? Theres an

epoxy product made for hardening wood thats rotted - I have a bunch of it left over from repairing rotted wood on my 100 yr old house - thik Ill try making some transparent wood tomorrow LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111

[BComplex]

24. See through wood...

I want some.

[PatrickforO]

25. That is just SO amazing.

BUT, it sounds like we need to plant millions more trees. We do anyway.

[Faux pas]

26. That's

a wonderful thing!

[Wicked Blue]

27. Can they try this with bamboo?

Bamboo is far easier and quicker to grow, as well as being sustainable.

[electric_blue68]

29. Oooo, interesting!

[ProfessorGAC]

31. Cool! But, A Nit To Pick

It is not hard to remove lignin from wood. And, it doesn't take hazardous chemicals.
Paper plants remove 80% of the lignin from wood before they chip it to make paper. Makes handling in the pulp section much easier, because the chips are smaller and less sticky.
More lignin components are removed later in the paper making process.
The paper companies refine it to get natural emulsifiers that have use in agricultural application.
They just force high pressure steam through the wood. In about 30 minutes, they move on to dry cooling.
But, another hour would remove 99% of the lignin. That's just an hour & a half for about 6 tons of wood.
It's energy & capital intensive, but not ridiculous. So, it's not a cost thing, really.
And ZERO hazardous chemicals are needed.
The reason that this isn't a common product is not for the reasons stated. More likely it's as simple as lack of demand.
This development might change that demand.

[MineralMan]

33. The samples shown were 1mm thick.

While that's interesting, it's not particularly useful, I think. I'm pretty sure this will not produce transparent wood in typical lumber thicknesses, starting at 3/4", which is about 19 mm. Translucent, perhaps, but far from transparent. Further, getting epoxy or other resin to fully penetrate wood of that thickness won't be easy or cheap.

1mm thick wood doesn't have a lot of uses, I'm afraid, and the difficulty with thicker materials seems to make this technology next to useless.

[Solly Mack]

37. Gonna make shower time the new neighborhood watch.