Researchers at the University of Maryland have made a block of linden wood transparent, which they say will be useful in fancy building materials and in light-based electronics systems.
Materials scientist Liangbing Hu and his team have removed the molecule in wood—lignin—that makes it rigid and dark in colour. They left behind the colourless cellulose cell structures, filled them with epoxy, and came up with a version of the wood that is mostly see-thru.
“It can be used in automobiles when the wood is made both transparent and high strength,” said Dr. Mingwei Zhu, the co-first author of the paper, a visiting professor at the University of Maryland. “You could also use it as a unique building material.”
Click here for source (University of Maryland)
Image Credit: University of Maryland
