Lumin­es­cent wood could light up homes of the future

Con­sumer demand for eco-friendly, renew­able mater­i­als has driv­en research­ers to invest­ig­ate wood-based thin films for optic­al applic­a­tions. How­ever, many mater­i­als developed so far have draw­backs, such as poor mech­an­ic­al prop­er­ties, uneven light­ing, a lack of water res­ist­ance or the need for a pet­ro­leum-based poly­mer mat­rix. Qili­ang Fu, Ingo Bur­gert and col­leagues wanted to devel­op a lumin­es­cent wood film that could over­come these lim­it­a­tions. The research­ers treated balsa wood with a solu­tion to remove lignin and about half of the hemi­cel­lu­loses, leav­ing behind a por­ous scaf­fold. The team then infused the delig­ni­fied wood with a solu­tion con­tain­ing quantum dots –– semi­con­duct­or nan­o­particles that glow in a par­tic­u­lar col­or when struck by ultra­vi­olet (UV) light. After com­press­ing and dry­ing, the research­ers applied a hydro­phobic coat­ing. The res­ult was a dense, water-res­ist­ant wood film with excel­lent mech­an­ic­al prop­er­ties. Under UV light, the quantum dots in the wood emit­ted and scattered an orange light that spread evenly through­out the film’s sur­face. The team demon­strated the abil­ity of a lumin­es­cent pan­el to light up the interi­or of a toy house. Dif­fer­ent types of quantum dots could be incor­por­ated into the wood film to cre­ate vari­ous col­ors of light­ing products, the research­ers say. The authors acknow­ledge fund­ing from the Roy­al Soci­ety of New Zea­l­and Te Apārangi and the New Zea­l­and Min­istry of Busi­ness, Innov­a­tion and Employ­ment. Source: ACS, Presspack, 04.11.2020