Scientists around the world are trying to improve the physical and mechanical properties of wood and its components. A team of researchers at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm recently published their own research on this issue. In laboratory conditions, they managed to create cellulose nanofiber, which is not inferior in strength to such materials in demand in construction as steel, ceramics and fiberglass. In addition, the final sample was eight times stronger than spider thread, the gold standard for lightweight biological polymers.
Cellulose nanofibers (they are also nanofibrils) are the smallest particles in the structure of plant cells, which have surprisingly high strength and stiffness indicators for living organisms. It is not surprising that scientific interest in nanofibrils remains consistently high. Nevertheless, the transfer of the above properties of these nanoparticles to the macrolevel “without loss of quality” has remained a difficult task until now: when scaling, structural defects appeared, which reduced the quality of the final material. A team of researchers at the Royal Institute of Technology managed to overcome this barrier with the help of deionized water, which changed the structure of the nanofibers and "lined" them in one direction, which made the starting material denser. As a result of this chemical action, the elasticity of the sample was 86 gigapascals, and the ultimate strength was 1.57 gigapascals. The researchers say the findings can be applied in construction, automotive and medicine.
