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Koch SM, Goldhahn C, Müller FJ, Yan W, Pilz-Allen C, Bidan CM, Ciabattoni B, Stricker L, Fratzl P, Keplinger T, Burgert I. Anisotropic wood-hydrogel composites: Extending mechanical properties of wood towards soft materials' applications. Mater Today Bio 2023; 22:100772. [PMID: 37674781 PMCID: PMC10477686 DOI: 10.1016/j.mtbio.2023.100772] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/24/2023] [Revised: 07/28/2023] [Accepted: 08/15/2023] [Indexed: 09/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Delignified wood (DW) offers a versatile platform for the manufacturing of composites, with material properties ranging from stiff to soft and flexible by preserving the preferential fiber directionality of natural wood through a structure-retaining production process. This study presents a facile method for fabricating anisotropic and mechanically tunable DW-hydrogel composites. These composites were produced by infiltrating delignified spruce wood with an aqueous gelatin solution followed by chemical crosslinking. The mechanical properties could be modulated across a broad strength and stiffness range (1.2-18.3 MPa and 170-1455 MPa, respectively) by varying the crosslinking time. The diffusion-led crosslinking further allowed to manufacture mechanically graded structures. The resulting uniaxial, tubular structure of the anisotropic DW-hydrogel composite enabled the alignment of murine fibroblasts in vitro, which could be utilized in future studies on potential applications in tissue engineering.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sophie Marie Koch
- Wood Materials Science, Institute for Building Materials, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
- WoodTec Group, Cellulose & Wood Materials, Empa, 8600 Duebendorf, Switzerland
| | - Christian Goldhahn
- Wood Materials Science, Institute for Building Materials, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Florence J. Müller
- Soft Materials Group, Department of Materials, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Wenqing Yan
- Wood Materials Science, Institute for Building Materials, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
- WoodTec Group, Cellulose & Wood Materials, Empa, 8600 Duebendorf, Switzerland
| | - Christine Pilz-Allen
- Department of Biomaterials, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
| | - Cécile M. Bidan
- Department of Biomaterials, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
| | - Beatrice Ciabattoni
- Wood Materials Science, Institute for Building Materials, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Laura Stricker
- Wood Materials Science, Institute for Building Materials, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Peter Fratzl
- Department of Biomaterials, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
| | - Tobias Keplinger
- Wood Materials Science, Institute for Building Materials, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Ingo Burgert
- Wood Materials Science, Institute for Building Materials, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
- WoodTec Group, Cellulose & Wood Materials, Empa, 8600 Duebendorf, Switzerland
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Wang S, Li L, Zha L, Koskela S, Berglund LA, Zhou Q. Wood xerogel for fabrication of high-performance transparent wood. Nat Commun 2023; 14:2827. [PMID: 37198187 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38481-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/21/2022] [Accepted: 05/04/2023] [Indexed: 05/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Optically transparent wood has been fabricated by structure-retaining delignification of wood and subsequent infiltration of thermo- or photocurable polymer resins but still limited by the intrinsic low mesopore volume of the delignified wood. Here we report a facile approach to fabricate strong transparent wood composites using the wood xerogel which allows solvent-free infiltration of resin monomers into the wood cell wall under ambient conditions. The wood xerogel with high specific surface area (260 m2 g-1) and high mesopore volume (0.37 cm3 g-1) is prepared by evaporative drying of delignified wood comprising fibrillated cell walls at ambient pressure. The mesoporous wood xerogel is compressible in the transverse direction and provides precise control of the microstructure, wood volume fraction, and mechanical properties for the transparent wood composites without compromising the optical transmittance. Transparent wood composites of large size and high wood volume fraction (50%) are successfully prepared, demonstrating potential scalability of the method.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shennan Wang
- Division of Glycoscience, Department of Chemistry, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, AlbaNova University Centre, Stockholm, SE-106 91, Sweden
| | - Lengwan Li
- Wallenberg Wood Science Center, Department of Fibre and Polymer Technology, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, SE-100 44, Sweden
| | - Li Zha
- Division of Glycoscience, Department of Chemistry, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, AlbaNova University Centre, Stockholm, SE-106 91, Sweden
| | - Salla Koskela
- Division of Glycoscience, Department of Chemistry, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, AlbaNova University Centre, Stockholm, SE-106 91, Sweden
- Wallenberg Wood Science Center, Department of Fibre and Polymer Technology, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, SE-100 44, Sweden
| | - Lars A Berglund
- Wallenberg Wood Science Center, Department of Fibre and Polymer Technology, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, SE-100 44, Sweden
| | - Qi Zhou
- Division of Glycoscience, Department of Chemistry, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, AlbaNova University Centre, Stockholm, SE-106 91, Sweden.
- Wallenberg Wood Science Center, Department of Fibre and Polymer Technology, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, SE-100 44, Sweden.
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