The screen of a wooden smartphone sounds like a science fiction novel, but Kennesaw State researchers used surprisingly simple, natural ingredients to create a translucent wood – including egg whites and sticky rice, restoring it to ancient architectural practices.
The innovation, presented at the American Chemical Society spring meeting this week in San Diego, addresses an urgent environmental problem: the serious prevalence of non-biodegradable plastics in modern electronics and building materials.
“In modern times, plastic is everywhere, including the devices we carry around. It’s a problem when we reach the end of the device’s life. It’s non-biodegradable,” said Bharat Baruah, a chemistry professor at Kennesaw State University, who led the study.
The concept of transparent wood is not entirely new – scientists have explored it as a plastic alternative for years. But previous versions often incorporate synthetic materials such as epoxy resins to maintain structural integrity. Baruah’s approach is different, drawing inspiration from his personal background.
Baruah grew up in Assam, northeastern India, and observed a century-old building built before the existence of modern cement. Ancient masons used an effective mixture of sand, sticky rice and egg whites as bonding agents. This traditional knowledge sparked the idea for his natural transparent wood.
Creating materials involves a multi-step process that transforms ordinary wood into something extraordinary. The team first used chemicals that included sodium sulfite, sodium hydroxide and diluted in a vacuum chamber to remove lignin and hemicellulose – two of the three main components. This leaves a porous cellulose network that is essentially the skeleton of wood.
Innovation happens in what happens next: rather than filling pores with synthetic materials, Baruah and undergraduate Ridham Raval combine them with a mixture of egg white and rice extracts along with a small amount of curing agent and maintain transparency. The result is a soft, durable material that can pass through light while maintaining the natural structure of the wood.
In addition to creating interesting materials, the researchers explored practical applications. In one experiment, they modified a birdhouse with transparent wooden windows and measured the insulation properties compared to glass. When placed under a heating lamp, the internal temperature remains at 9 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit cooler with transparent wooden windows – suggesting potential energy efficiency advantages for building applications.
The team also developed a conductive version by blending silver nanowires into wood, developing a wearable sensor or solar cell coating. While the silvery ingredients are not biodegradable, Baruah hopes to try to use alternatives like graphene to maintain environmental credentials for the material.
Although still in an early stage of development – transparency can be improved, for example – this approach suggests that innovative materials do not necessarily require expensive or environmentally harmful components.
“I want to send a message to my undergraduates that you can do interesting research without spending thousands of dollars,” Baruah said.
As concerns about plastic pollution continue, developments like this kind of transparent wood can offer a variety of alternatives from electronic devices to building materials – potentially changing our perception of materials in everyday life while drawing wisdom from hundreds of years of building technology that has stood the test of time.
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