High Performance, Fully Bio‐Based, and Optically Transparent Wood Biocomposites

Céline Montanari (1) , Yu Ogawa (2) , Peter A Olsén (1) , Lars A Berglund (1)

1 KTH - KTH Royal Institute of Technology [Stockholm]
2 CERMAV - Centre de Recherches sur les Macromolécules Végétales

The sustainable development of engineering biocomposites has been limited due to a lack of bio-based monomers combining favorable processing with high performance. Here, the authors report a novel and fully bio-based transparent wood biocomposite based on green synthesis of a new limonene acrylate monomer from renewable resources. The monomer is impregnated and readily polymerized in a delignified, succinylated wood substrate to form optically transparent biocomposites. The chemical structure of the limonene acrylate enables diffusion into the cell wall, and the polymer phase is both refractive index-matched and covalently linked to the wood substrate. This results in nanostructured biocomposites combining an excellent optical transmittance of 90% at 1.2 mm thickness and a remarkably low haze of 30%, with a high mechanical performance (strength 174 MPa, Young's modulus 17 GPa). Bio-based transparent wood holds great potential towards the development of sustainable wood nanotechnologies for structural applications, where transparency and mechanical performance are combined.

Domaines: Matériaux

Céline Montanari, Yu Ogawa, Peter A Olsén, Lars A Berglund. High Performance, Fully Bio‐Based, and Optically Transparent Wood Biocomposites. Advanced Science, 2021, 8, ⟨10.1002/advs.202100559⟩. ⟨hal-03431825⟩