### Sustainable and Durable Alternative
Chinese scientists have developed a transparent material from bamboo that is fire-resistant, waterproof, and smoke-blocking, potentially challenging the dominance of glass in construction, New Atlas reported on May 15. The new research was published in the journal Research.
Silica glass, made from sand, is the go-to building material when a transparent yet strong structure is needed, such as windows. However, it can be heavy and fragile, and it is not the most sustainable material.
### Transparent Timber
Transparent wood has been around for a few years now. Scientists remove the lignin from wood fibers using a chemical process, then treat the material with acrylic or epoxy resins. The resulting product is a see-through, renewable material that is as strong or stronger than glass, and it is lighter and better at insulating.
However, wood also has drawbacks, such as being more flammable than glass and being limited in supply, with the added production time being considerable. For their new study, the team from Central South University of Forestry and Technology (CSUFT) in China turned to bamboo.
### The Benefits of Bamboo
"Bamboo has rapid growth and regeneration, taking only 4-7 years to mature and be ready to be used as a building material. With four times higher yield per unit area compared to wood, bamboo is an acknowledged high-performing crop," said Caichao Wan, a member of the research team.
### Making Bamboo Transparent
Since the internal structure and chemical composition of bamboo are very similar to wood, the researchers used a similar process to make it transparent. After the lignin was removed, the bamboo was soaked in an inorganic liquid sodium silicate, which changed the refractive index of the fibers and made the bamboo transparent. The bamboo was then treated to make it waterproof.
The final material is a three-layer structure: silane on top, silicon dioxide in the middle, and sodium silicate on the bottom. The transparent bamboo has a light transmittance of 71.6% and is fire-resistant, waterproof, and can block smoke and carbon monoxide.
### Beyond Building Materials
In addition to its potential as a building material, transparent bamboo could also be a substrate for perovskite solar cells, acting as a light management layer. This could boost the power conversion efficiency of the cells to 15.29%. "Our future work will focus on upscaling production and exploring multifunctional applications for this transparent bamboo," said Wan.
### Summary
Transparent bamboo is a promising new material with a range of potential applications. It is strong, lightweight, and sustainable, and it has a number of advantages over glass, including fire resistance, water resistance, and smoke blocking. Further research is needed to scale up production and explore new applications for this innovative material.