Wood nanoengineering
Project description
The objective of this project is the preparation and functionalization of hierarchically structured porous wood (balsa). The raw material that we are using is Balsa wood (Ochroma Lagopus), which is an abundant, low-cost, environmental friendly, biodegradable and sound insulating material. Balsa wood is a perfect candidate for preparing a high-performance lightweight material because of its hierarchical porous structure and consequent combination of high strength, stiffness, toughness, and low density. Its porous structures can be identified in at least four levels, ranging from the millimeter scale (growth ring and vessel pore), via the micrometer scale (longitudinal tracheid, fiber and transverse ray parenchyma), to the nanometer scale (the cell walls structural organization and its assembly structures), and the sub-nanometer scale of their components (lignin, hemicellulose and cellulose) on the molecules assembly.
The hierarchically structured porous material serves as a template, which can be functionalized by organics and/or inorganics to further enchance or add new properties. The final material is a composite that could broaden avenues with potential applications in building materials, optically transparent materials, catalytic materials, drug delivery, absorbents, electronic devices and engineering materials.