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Wood energy

The wood energy project aims to develop and understand wood-derived structures for energy related applications including energy harvesting (hydrovoltaics, piezoelectrics, photovoltaics, etc.), energy conversion (water splitting, solar evaporator, etc. ), energy storage (battery, supercapacitor, etc.), and electronics/photonic devices.

The following schematic clearly presents the hierarchical structure of wood and its opportunities for nanoengineering. The aligned hollow fibers with micro and nano sized channels play the role of conducting water, ions and minerals inside the tree. In the wood cell wall, the oriented cellulose fibrils in a matrix of hemicellulose and lignin provide mechanical support.

scientific illustration showing the structure of wood from the cell level to the individual molecule
Schematic representation of the hierarchical wood structure. Credit: Garemark, J. Integrated Cellulosic Wood Aerogel Structures. 2022., doctoral thesis

The following scheme presents wood functionalization strategies and representative work.

scientific illustration schematic highlighting wood functionalisation possibilities
Wood functionalisation possibilities. Adapted from: Garemark, J. Integrated Cellulosic Wood Aerogel Structures. 2022. (doctoral thesis)

Publication highlights

(1) Xu, X.; Garemark, J.; Ram, F.; Wang, Z.; Li, Y. Metallic Wood through Deep-Cell-Wall Metallization: Synthesis and Applications. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2024, 16 (17), 22433–22442. doi.org/10.1021/acsami.4c02779  

(2) Sheng, X.; Li, Y.; Yang, T.; Timmer, B. J. J.; Willhammar, T.; Cheung, O.; Li, L.; Brett, C. J.; Roth, S. V.; Zhang, B.; Fan, L.; Guo, Y.; Zou, X.; Berglund, L.; Sun, L. Hierarchical Micro-Reactor as Electrodes for Water Splitting by Metal Rod Tipped Carbon Nanocapsule Self-Assembly in Carbonized Wood. Applied Catalysis B: Environmental 2020, 264, 118536. doi.org/10.1016/j.apcatb.2019.118536

(3) Li, Y.; Cheng, M.; Jungstedt, E.; Xu, B.; Sun, L.; Berglund, L. Optically Transparent Wood Substrate for Perovskite Solar Cells. ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering 2019, 7 (6), 6061–6067. doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.8b06248

(4) Garemark, J.; Ram, F.; Liu, L.; Sapouna, I.; Cortes Ruiz, M. F.; Larsson, P. T.; Li, Y. Advancing Hydrovoltaic Energy Harvesting from Wood through Cell Wall Nanoengineering. Advanced Functional Materials 2023, 33 (4), 2208933. doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202208933