'Super wood' harder than metal is sold on the market

SuperWood is a type of wood with extremely high durability. Photo: InventWood .

The American company InventWood has created a new type of wood that has a strength-to-weight ratio 10 times higher than steel, but is six times lighter than steel. The wood, called Superwood, is the brainchild of materials scientist Liangbing Hu.

After years of perfecting the process and filing more than 140 patents, Superwood is now on the market. It will replace concrete and steel in construction, helping to reduce carbon emissions significantly.

Unexpected results from chemical ideas

More than a decade ago, Hu, while working at the University of Maryland’s Materials Innovation Center, found innovative ways to restructure wood. He even made the material transparent by removing some of the lignin, a key component of its color and part of its strength.

Hu’s real goal was to make wood stronger. In 2017, he first achieved this by chemically improving natural cellulose, the main component of plant fibers, to make wood a superior building material.

The wood is first boiled in a solution of water and selected chemicals, then hot pressed to collapse the structure at the cellular level. The week-long process results in wood with a strength-to-weight ratio “higher than most metals and structural alloys,” according to the study published in the journal Nature .

SuperWood production process. Photo: InventWood.

In reality, it’s still wood, and it can help create structures that are four times lighter than they are today, according to Alex Lau, CEO of InventWood. The material also helps increase earthquake resistance and reduce the load on the foundation, speeding up and simplifying the construction process.

The process of changing the basic structure of cellulose can be applied to any type of wood. “In fact, we tested it on 19 different types of wood as well as bamboo, and it worked on all of them,” Lau said.

Superwood is up to 20 times stronger than conventional wood and up to 10 times more resistant to dents. Thanks to its tightly compressed, naturally porous structure, the material is also resistant to mold and insects, and achieves the highest rating in standard fire resistance tests.

Trend of using wood in construction

Wood has been used in construction for a long time, but it was previously only glued together. In recent years, wood has been widely used, even in skyscrapers. The city of Milwaukee, home to the world's tallest timber tower (87 m), has just announced plans to build one that is more than twice as tall.

Today, concrete production has declined, but it remains the most widely used building material. Its production accounts for up to 7% of global carbon emissions.

SuperWood is 20 times more durable than regular wood. Photo: InventWood.

Philip Oldfield, professor of architecture and head of the School of Built Environment at the University of New South Wales, said wood is less energy-intensive to produce, and the biomass inside it stores CO2 through photosynthesis. “Building with wood can help cities lock in carbon emissions in buildings for a long time,” Oldfield said.

Despite its durability rivaling steel and concrete, businesses have yet to make major use of wood in construction. Mr. Oldfield explains that the industry is inherently risk-averse and slow to change.

He said there was a need for improved education , pilot projects and regulatory frameworks to make timber more widely used in construction. More durable timbers such as Superwood could be beneficial and could spur greater use of timber in the future.

InventWood’s Maryland factory has reduced production times to a few hours a day, but Lau said scaling up will still take time. Initially, the company plans to focus on outdoor applications like flooring and wall panels, before expanding into indoor applications like interior wall panels, flooring and furniture sometime next year.

Source: https://znews.vn/sieu-go-cung-hon-kim-loai-duoc-ban-ra-thi-truong-post1594149.html