Making 'super wood' stronger than steel

American company InventWood has just launched the commercial product 'Superwood', a new type of wood that is stronger and lighter than steel.

InventWood Company has created a type of wood that is more durable than steel - Photo: INVENTWOOD

InventWood, a company co-founded by materials scientist Liangbing Hu, has just launched "Superwood" that has a specific strength (the ratio between a material's strength and its weight) 10 times higher than steel but is 6 times lighter.

According to CNN on October 16, more than 10 years ago, Mr. Hu began to learn how to regenerate wood - one of the oldest building materials known to man. He found innovative methods to regenerate wood, including making it transparent.

His main goal, however, was to make wood stronger by using cellulose - the main component of plant fibers.

The first breakthrough came in 2017, when he increased the strength (hardness) of wood by chemically treating it to increase the amount of natural cellulose, making it a better building material.

First, the wood is boiled in a tank of water and chemicals, then hot pressed to shrink it at the cellular level, making it denser. After a week of processing, the resulting wood has a specific strength "higher than most metals and alloys."

Now, after many years of perfecting the process and filing more than 140 patents, Mr. Hu - currently a professor at Yale University (USA) - has launched "Superwood" on the market.

InventWood says "Superwood" is up to 20 times stronger than regular wood and up to 10 times more resistant to dents. It's also resistant to mold and insects. "Superwood" is also fire resistant.

The downside is that the product costs more than conventional construction wood and has a larger carbon footprint. Compared to steel production, the carbon footprint of "Superwood" is up to 90% lower.

Chemically and practically, “Superwood” is wood. This material would make current structures up to four times lighter, meaning they would be more earthquake-resistant, easier to work with, making construction easier and faster.

InventWood said it will take some time to scale up production. For now, the company plans to focus on exterior applications like exterior cladding, before moving into interior items like interior wall panels, flooring and home furnishings next year.

InventWood believes that entire buildings could be built using "Superwood", although more testing is needed to make that happen.

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ANH THU

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/che-tao-sieu-go-ben-hon-thep-20251017121755199.htm