As the world focuses on tackling climate change, scientists have had to get creative when it comes to developing sustainable building materials that address their carbon footprint. Scientists have devised new engineering methods to make wood stronger and absorb carbon dioxide from the air.
Carbon dioxide is recognized as a fundamental driver of climate change. Limiting the carbon dioxide emissions associated with the production of structural materials such as steel, metals and cement is an indirect way of addressing climate change. A direct approach is to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide by incorporating it into structural materials.
Scientists at Rice University in Texas have taken advantage of wood’s natural properties to increase its ability to absorb carbon dioxide. This process introduces a porous, fine-grained metal-organic framework (MOF) into the wood after the internal framework has been removed. This process is known as delignification.
“Wood is composed of three essential components: cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin,” said Muhammad Rahman, corresponding author of the study. “The lignin gives the wood its color, so when the lignin is removed, it becomes colorless.”
Once delignification is complete, the wood is ready to house the MOF.
“The MOF particles easily fit into the cellulose channels and adhere to them,” said Soumyabrata Roy, a Rice research scientist and lead author of the study. The MOF then adsorbs carbon dioxide.
MOFs are generally unknown about their stability under various environmental conditions. They tend to be sensitive to moisture, which is clearly something to avoid in structural materials.
But Rice’s team found in their study that the MOF they used (developed by Professor George Shimizu and colleagues at the University of Calgary) outperformed the rest in terms of performance and versatility under a variety of conditions. I discovered that
We tested the treated wood for tensile strength and found it to be stronger than regular untreated wood and able to withstand environmental stresses such as bending. They also argue that the processes used to produce the wood are potentially scalable and energy efficient.
The construction and use of buildings account for more than 40% of human-generated greenhouse gas emissions, so this discovery opens up the possibility of greener construction alternatives. sustainable and renewable.
This research cell report physical science.
Source: Rice University
