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The emerging development of transparent wood: materials, characteristics, and applications

  • Wood Structure and Function (M Watt, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Purpose of review

Transparent wood (TW) has attracted much interest from researchers as an emerging optical load-bearing material because of its advanced characteristics. These advantages mainly include being renewable, existing abundant reserves, low cost, interesting optical properties, outstanding mechanical performance, and low thermal conductivity. This review summarizes the current research activities that center on the development of transparent wood.

Recent findings

This review first addresses wood structural features and chemical composition. The effects of lignin removal, wood species, and resin types on the properties of transparent wood have been explored by researchers. Moreover, many studies highlight the properties of transparent wood, including optical and thermal properties and mechanical performance. An increasing number of studies have focused on the preparation of functional transparent wood and its commercial application.

Summary

We summarize transparent wood research processes and perspectives on several issues that need further exploration. Lignin removal is one of the most important factors in the processing of transparent wood. Thus, more efficient and greener methods need to be developed to achieve lignin removal or modification to suit the requirements of high-performance transparent wood. The main research objectives would be new functional properties such as electromagnetic shielding, intelligent photoelectric response, high hardness, and electrical conductivity of transparent wood.

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Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Canada Research Chair Program, Natural science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Key Laboratory of Bio-based Material Science & Technology (Northeast Forestry University), Ministry of Education (SWZ-ZD202101), and Mitacs Accelerate Proposal (IT23437).

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Biobased Material and Green Papermaking, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Jinan, 250300, People’s Republic of China

    Jingfa Zhang, Yubo Tao & Peng Li

  2. Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Rouyn-Noranda, Québec, J9X 5E4, Canada

    Jingfa Zhang, Ahmed Koubaa & Dan Xing

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Zhang, J., Koubaa, A., Tao, Y. et al. The emerging development of transparent wood: materials, characteristics, and applications. Curr Forestry Rep 8, 333–345 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40725-022-00172-z

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