Researchers at the University of Maryland, United States, found a way to make wood as hard as steel. Wow, how come?
This wood, called Hardened Wood (HW), can be an alternative to steel, it is cheaper and more environmentally friendly.
In a scientific journal called Matter and several videos on YouTube, the researchers revealed that with this technique, wooden knives that are three times sharper than metal ones can cut meat easily, and wooden nails that can be hammered into three layers of wooden planks. solid.
And because it is made of wood, of course these knives and nails cannot rust.
The method of making wood as hard as steel is to remove a number of elements from the wood using chemicals, followed by increasing the density of the wood. The researchers claim it can increase the hardness of wood by 23 times.
The author of the research is Teng Li, who explained that wood is made of cellulose in it. Now this cellulose density to hardness ratio is actually higher than ceramics, metals, or polymers.
But the problem is that the cellulose content is only about half of the total wood. While the rest are weaker materials, such as hemicellulose and lignin.
So in the hardening process the weak materials are removed. For example, lignin is removed through the delignification process, and then the wood is pressed to remove the water in its content.
After that the wood can be shaped into any shape. Then it can finally be processed using mineral oil to reduce water absorption, which aims to extend the life of the wood.
