(729a) Wood Nanotechnologies

One dimensional (1D) nanocellulose (NC) biopolymers provide the backbone of a large portion of the natural world. Produced by plants and bacteria, NC is the most available renewable nanomaterial on earth and one of the least expensive to access and utilize.Plant photosynthesis produces NC, with ~30-40 wt.% of as ordered cellulose nanofibers (CNF) or nanocrystals (CNC, the crystalline part of CNF). The strong intra- and inter-chain hydrogen bonding leads to outstanding mechanical properties including a high Young’s modulus (~200 GPa) and tensile strength (3-6 GPa) in cellulose nanofibers that exceeds steel wires, multi-walled carbon nanotubes and synthetic Kevlar fibers. Due to these exceptional properties, wood-based cellulose nanofibers have attracted tremendous interest as a sustainable nanomaterial. If utilized efficiently, the global shortage of petroleum-based raw materials could be resolved.

At University of Maryland, we have invented a series of wood-based advanced materials, including super wood (stronger than steel), transparent wood (to replace glass), super clear paper (to replace plastics), lightweight nanowood (to replace Styrofoam but much stronger), among others. These technologies are being commercialized through a UMD startup, Inventwood LLC

Relevant References:

Hu, L.* A General Strategy for Processing Wood into Super Strong and Tough Structural Materials. Nature, 2018, 554, 224. Hu, L.* Anisotropic, Lightweight, Strong, and Super Thermally Insulating Nanowood with Naturally Aligned Nanocellulose, Science Advances, Accepted Hu, L.* Scalable and Sustainable Approach toward Highly Compressible, Anisotropic, Lamellar Carbon Sponge, Chem, Accepted Hu, L.* Mesoporous, Three-Dimensional Wood Membrane Decorated with Nanoparticles for Highly Efficient Water Treatment, ACS Nano, 2017; Hu, L.* All-wood, Low Tortuosity, Aqueous, Biodegradable Supercapacitors with Ultra-High Capacitance, Energy & Environmental Science, 2017; Hu, L.* High-Capacity, Low-Tortuosity, and Channel-Guided Lithium Metal Anode. PNAS, 2017; Hu, L.* A High‐Performance, Low‐Tortuosity Wood‐Carbon Monolith Reactor, Advanced Materials, 2017, 29, 1604257; Hu, L.* Anisotropic, Transparent Films with Aligned Cellulose Nanofibers, Advanced Materials, 2017, 1606284; Hu, L.* Wood Composite as an Energy Efficient Building Material: Guided Sunlight Transmittance and Effective Thermal Insulation, Advanced Energy Materials, 2016, 6, 1601122; Hu, L.* Anisotropic Transparent Wood-Composites, Advanced Materials, 2016, 28, 5181; Hu, L.* Light Management in Plastic-Paper Hybrid Substrate towards High-Performance Optoelectronics, Energy & Environmental Science, 2016, 9, 2278; Hu, L.* Extreme Light Management in Mesoporous Wood Cellulose Paper for Optoelectronics, ACS Nano, 2016, 10, 1369; Hu, L.* Wood-Derived Materials for Green Electronics, Biological Devices, and Energy Applications, Chemical Review, 2016, 116, 9305; Hu, L.^* Highly Transparent Paper with Tunable Haze for Green Electronics. Energy & Environmental Science, 2014, 7, 3313; Hu, L.^* Novel Nanostructured Paper with Ultrahigh Transparency and Ultrahigh Haze for Solar Cells, Nano Letters, 2014, 14, 765; Hu, L.^* Transparent Paper: Fabrications, Properties, and Device Applications, Energy & Environmental Science, 2014, 7, 269; Hu, L.^*

Tin Anode for Sodium-Ion Batteries Using Natural Wood Fiber as a Mechanical Buffer and Electrolyte Reservoir, Nano Letters, 2013, 13, 3093. Hu, L.^* Highly Transparent and Flexible Nanopaper Transistors, ACS Nano, 2013, 7, 2106; Hu, L.^*Biodegradable Transparent Substrates for Flexible Organic-Light-Emitting Doides, Energy & Environmental Science, 2013, 6, 2105.