{"id":1069,"date":"2019-11-26T12:57:47","date_gmt":"2019-11-26T12:57:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/horizon.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com\/?p=1069"},"modified":"2019-11-26T13:05:46","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T13:05:46","slug":"transparent-wood-the-building-material-of-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/1069\/transparent-wood-the-building-material-of-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Transparent wood: the building material of the future?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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by Sarah Wild\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

When Timoth\u00e9e Boitouzet studied architecture in Japan, where buildings need to survive earthquakes, he realised the next smart material might be one that humans have used for thousands of years \u2013 wood.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u2018In France, we build more with concrete and stone than wood,\u2019 he said. \u2018When I was exposed to Japanese building culture, I realised how you could build fantastic structures with wood. This material that we considered an old material, without innovation, was actually super smart. This got me excited about wood.\u2019<\/p>\n

In 2016, Boitouzet founded\u00a0material science company Woodoo<\/a>\u00a0in Paris, France, which retrofits timber to give it new properties.\u00a0His focus is on\u00a0transforming the construction industry through replacing steel with wood, for example. Unlike other construction materials, such as stone or concrete which\u00a0contains sand<\/a>, wood is a renewable resource, making it an attractive sustainable building material, Boitouzet said.<\/p>\n

Building more with trees could also help curb the construction industry\u2019s large carbon footprint, which is accelerating climate change.\u00a0A recent report by the World Green Building Council<\/a>\u00a0estimates that 11% of global carbon emissions come from materials and construction processes throughout the building lifecycle. As trees contain carbon, using wood in buildings is a way of storing carbon.<\/p>\n

Wood, however, can be used for more than support pillars. By selectively extracting wood\u2019s lignin \u2013 the substance that makes up its cell walls \u2013 and replacing it with a specific type of polymer, it becomes a new material. \u2018(This wood) is weather-proof, more fire resistant, three to five times stronger, and transparent,\u2019 Boitouzet said.<\/p>\n

The optical properties of the polymer are matched to that of the wood so that light does not bend when it moves through the augmented wood. Instead, it passes through. This transparency opens up a wide range of possibilities.<\/p>\n

Augmented<\/strong><\/p>\n

So far, automotive companies are the ones that have shown the most interest in his augmented wood.<\/p>\n

Currently, through a project called\u00a0Woodoo Augmented Wood<\/a>, the company is working on integrating electronics into its touch-sensitive wood, through collaboration with industry partners. The material, which transmits light, will become wooden panels for \u2018tactile dashboards\u2019 in cars, Boitouzet\u00a0says.<\/p>\n

Woodoo sees the automotive industry as a gateway to get its products to market, while introducing wood products that are lighter and produce fewer emissions than traditional panels.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Integrating
Integrating electronics into touch-sensitive wood could pave the way for interactive wooden dashboards in cars. Image credit – Woodoo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Integrating electronics into touch-sensitive wood could pave the way for interactive wooden dashboards in cars. Image credit – Woodoo<\/p>\n

Boitouzet is not the only one excited by the possibilities that wood offers. Lars Berglund, a professor in wood and wood composites at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, has discovered that there are many uses for transparent, strong wood.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s a difficult area to be original in because people have worked on wood technology for hundreds of years,\u2019 said Prof. Berglund, who heads up the\u00a0WoodNanoTech<\/a>\u00a0project. While other research has mainly been trying to address its shortcomings, such as its sensitivity to water, he and his team have focused on other characteristics of wood.<\/p>\n

\u2018We have been able to free ourselves from that limitation and look at new possibilities that have not been considered so far,\u2019 he said. Their focus is on using transparent wood for engineering applications.<\/p>\n

Prof. Berglund uses wood as a template for nanotechnology by \u2013 like Boitouzet \u2013 stripping out the lignin, introducing an optically-compatible polymer, and adding other technology to broaden its functionality.<\/p>\n

The application that excites Prof. Berglund the most is embedding quantum dots in wood to create light-emitting diodes (LEDs), because he suspects it could be the application that will allow the team to break into the commercial market. \u2018The idea is that your ceiling would be a wood panel, and the wood panel would have this LED function, so you can have indoor lighting directly from the ceiling,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

Unlike a point-source light, the transparent wood\u2019s light is diffuse, making it more natural and easy on the eye, Prof. Berglund says. Quantum dots are a collection of semiconductor atoms, a few nanometres wide, which fluoresce when exposed to UV light. These panels are just one of the many applications that WoodNanoTech has devised for their transparent wood.<\/p>\n

The wood may also form the basis for electrochromic windows. These \u2018smart windows\u2019, which are painted with a thin layer of polymer, can block out light when electricity is run through them.<\/p>\n

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‘(Augmented wood) is weather-proof, more fire resistant, three to five times stronger, and transparent.’<\/p>\n

Timoth\u00e9e Boitouzet, Founder & CEO, Woodoo<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Energy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prof. Berglund believes that this next-generation wood also has a place in the energy sector. \u2018We can improve the efficiency (of solar cells) because the scattering of the light (inside the wood) means that the path of the (light) is longer, so you can absorb more energy,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

And using a phase-change material rather than a polymer to replace the lignin transforms wood into an energy storage device. During the day, this infused wood can absorb heat, but at night, when temperatures cool, the phase-change material crystallises, releasing heat.<\/p>\n

\u2018We start with the wood, make it load-bearing, and then integrate (nano) technology with other functions,\u2019 Prof. Berglund said.<\/p>\n

The main challenge for new technologies is scalability, and next-generation wood is no exception. \u2018How do you scale from lab processing, where you have close control over your nanostructure, to something that can be done on an industrial scale?\u2019 Prof. Berglund asked, adding that they are looking for commercial partners. This can be difficult for academic research projects.<\/p>\n

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\"So
So far, Prof. Berglund’s team have used a petroleum-based polymer to replace the lignin in wood, but they are searching for a greener alternative. Image credit – KTH Royal Institute of Technology\/ David Callahan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

For Woodoo\u2019s Boitouzet, the fact that their company already has industry partners allows them to increase production. Currently, they produce 5,000 square metres of augmented wood per year \u2013 which is about three-quarters of a football pitch \u2013 and are now aiming for 300,000 square metres a year.<\/p>\n

Luckily, timber for augmented wood is easy to source.<\/p>\n

There are already many places where they can acquire wood, Boitouzet says. Woodoo uses beech, pine, and poplar, among others, while Prof. Berglund\u2019s research team retrofits balsa and is turning its attention to birch.<\/p>\n

The next step for Prof. Berglund is to make his modified wood more environmentally friendly. One way to do this would be to retain as much of the lignin as possible, instead of discarding it. \u2018If you remove it, you\u2019re adding a chemical step which is going to cost energy, require solvents,\u2019 he said. Using more lignin also means retaining more carbon in buildings.<\/p>\n

Right now, his team is focusing on using a greener polymer in the materials. \u2018So far, we have used petroleum-based polymers to impregnate the wood, but we\u2019re working very intensely now to use a bio-based polymer,\u2019 he said. That would secure next-generation wood\u2019s position as a building material of the future.<\/p>\n

Originally published by Horizon<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Sarah Wild\u00a0 When Timoth\u00e9e Boitouzet studied architecture in Japan, where buildings need to survive earthquakes, he realised the next smart material might be one that humans have used for thousands of years \u2013 wood. \u2018In France, we build more with concrete and stone than wood,\u2019 he said. \u2018When I was exposed to Japanese building … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":1070,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-earth-energy-environment","category-technology"],"yoast_head":"\nTransparent wood: the building material of the future? - Horizon Magazine Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/1069\/transparent-wood-the-building-material-of-the-future\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Transparent wood: the building material of the future?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Sarah Wild\u00a0 When Timoth\u00e9e Boitouzet studied architecture in Japan, where buildings need to survive earthquakes, he realised the next smart material might be one that humans have used for thousands of years \u2013 wood. \u2018In France, we build more with concrete and stone than wood,\u2019 he said. \u2018When I was exposed to Japanese building ... 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