Lu Ziyang, Qi Luhe, Chen Junqing, Lu Cai, Huang Jing, Chen Lu, Wu Yuying, Feng Jiahao, Lin Jinyou, Liu Ze, Lizundia Erlantz, Chen Chaoji
Hubei Biomass-Resource Chemistry and Environmental Biotechnology Key Laboratory, Hubei Provincial Engineering Research Center of Emerging Functional Coating Materials, School of Resource and Environmental Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China.
Department of Engineering Mechanics, School of Civil Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072 Hubei, China.
Sci Adv. 2025 Jul 25;11(30):eady0183. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.ady0183. Epub 2025 Jul 23.
Lightweight and high-strength structural materials promise exceptional applications in advanced engineering fields. As a productive and sustainable material, wood exhibits exceptional potential to be converted into high-performance structural materials. Inspired by ancient buried wood-a naturally formed material after wood endures in microbial-rich and high-pressure environments for thousands of years-here, we demonstrate a biomechanochemical process to rapidly transform natural wood into artificial ancient buried wood (named Bio-Strong-Wood). Biotreatment depolymerizes the lignin and softens the cell wall. Then, Bio-Strong-Wood components are linked via a strong network of hydrogen and covalent bonds through the mechanochemical treatment. This results in a substantially enhanced mechanical strength (539 ± 21.7 megapascals), which outperforms the SAE 304 stainless steel. In addition, life cycle and technoeconomic assessments reveal that the obtained material achieves negative carbon emissions of 1.17 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilogram. Overall, our work provides an economically competitive, environmentally sustainable, and decarbonizing alternative to existing structural materials.
轻质高强度结构材料在先进工程领域有着卓越的应用前景。木材作为一种高产且可持续的材料，在转化为高性能结构材料方面展现出非凡潜力。受古代埋木启发——木材在富含微生物的高压环境中历经数千年后自然形成的一种材料——在此，我们展示了一种生物机械化学过程，可将天然木材快速转化为人造古代埋木（命名为生物强化木材）。生物处理使木质素解聚并软化细胞壁。然后，通过机械化学处理，生物强化木材的各组分通过强大的氢键和共价键网络连接起来。这使得其机械强度大幅提高（539±21.7兆帕斯卡），超过了SAE 304不锈钢。此外，生命周期和技术经济评估表明，所获得的材料实现了每千克1.17千克二氧化碳当量的负碳排放。总体而言，我们的工作为现有结构材料提供了一种经济上有竞争力、环境可持续且能脱碳的替代方案。
