Photo credit: Bo Chen
Researchers at the University of Maryland have developed a type of hardened wood that is stronger than steel, and could potentially be used to make shark sustainable knives or wooden nails resistant to rusting. How strong is the latter? Well, strong enough to hammer together three boards without any damage to the nail. Creating this type of wood is a two-step process: first, they had to delignify it applying pressure and heat to the chemically processed wood to densify as well as remove the water.
Once the material is processed and crafted into the desired shape, it’s then coated in mineral oil to extend its lifetime. Since cellulose tends to absorb water, the coating preserves the knife’s sharpness during use and when washed. The microstructure of the hardened wood was examined under a microscope to determine the origin of its strength, and they found out that the two-step process used significantly reduces or removes the defects in natural wood, making it far more rigid than before.
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Cellulose, the main component of wood, has a higher ratio of strength to density than most engineered materials, like ceramics, metals, and polymers, but our existing usage of wood barely touches its full potential. Even though it’s often used in building, wood’s strength falls short of that of cellulose. This is because wood is made up of only 40%–50% cellulose, with the rest consisting of hemicellulose and lignin, which acts as a binder,” said Teng Li, the senior author of the study and a professor of mechanical engineering at UMD.
