A team of researchers searching for safe, sustainable, and biodegradable alternatives to plastics presented a new type of transparent material at the American Chemical Society (ACS) spring meeting, ACS Spring 2025, in San Diego, California.
Unlike previous transparent “wood” designs that sacrifice some biodegradability for strength by including certain types of plastics, the team said its eco-friendly see-through material is made with all natural components. One version included nanowires, which also makes the new material electrically conductive.
The team is currently exploring methods of increasing the material’s transparency without sacrificing other benefits. Potential applications for the plastic alternative include electronic device screens, wearable sensors, coatings on solar cells, and transparent wood windows.
Transparent Aluminum, Meet Transparent Wood
In the science fiction world of Star Trek, Commander and Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott passed along (and possibly invented) the formula for a heavy-duty glass replacement called transparent aluminum. In the non-fiction 21st Century, most commercial and industrial transparent materials are made of glass or plastics. While the first has some recyclability depending on its type, plastics have become one of Earth’s most invasive, harmful, and toxic substances.
Several new studies are also hunting for ways to recycle plastics, including using enhanced plastic-degrading bacteria, plastic-eating “super worms,” and swarms of plastic-hunting micro-robots that can remove some of the smallest pieces of plastic from the environment. Fortunately, scientists are also looking for inventive, safer, more eco-friendly alternatives.
Now, Bharat Baruah, a professor of chemistry at Kennesaw State University, has presented his team’s efforts to create a non-toxic, fully biodegradable transparent wood made from all natural materials.
The Search That Began in a Workshop and ended in a Vacuum Chamber
In a statement announcing the team’s research and upcoming presentation, Baruah said his woodworking hobby led him to research efforts to create transparent wood. He quickly discovered that successfully created transparent wood materials were enhanced with epoxy, a type of plastic, to increase its strength, sacrificing some biodegradability. The professor decided he should see if there were better alternatives.
“In the modern day, plastic is everywhere, including our devices that we carry around. And it’s a problem when we reach the end of that device’s life. It’s not biodegradable,” Baruah explained. “So, I asked, what if we can create something that’s natural and biodegradable instead?”
Baruah’s next inspiration came from his childhood home of Assam in northeastern India, where several buildings made from natural materials before modern-day cement were still standing after centuries. Those masons, the researcher explained, created a rudimentary but surprisingly resilient cement made of sand, egg whites, and sticky rice. Baruah immediately wondered if the same type of mix could be his transparent wood-strengthening answer.
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This slice of semi-transparent wood is made with natural materials and could be used in applications from wearable sensors to energy-efficient windows. Credit: Bharat Baruah.
After enlisting Ridham Raval, a Kenneshaw State undergraduate student, to help, the duo used a vacuum chamber, sodium sulfite, sodium hydroxide, and bleach to remove lignin and hemicellulose, two of wood’s three components, from a sample of balsa wood. What remained was a paper-like layer of cellulose filled with tiny pores.
Instead of refilling the pores with epoxy, the team soaked the cellulose layer in a mixture of egg whites and rice extract. A curing agent called diethylenetriamine was also added to keep the atrial see-through. Importantly, the team says that the amounts of the various chemicals and reagents used in the process were small enough to present a danger to the environment. According to the team’s statement, they were “left with semi-transparent slices of wood that were durable and flexible.”
Evaluating Potential Applications and Maintaining Sustainability
To test their new transparent wood’s potential viability as a replacement for plastics and glass, the team renovated a birdhouse, turning it into a tiny, insulated home with only one window. Next, the team placed a temperature sensor inside the birdhouse and placed the pair under a heat lamp.
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Following several tests, the team found that the temperature inside the house was between 9 and 11 degrees Fahrenheit (5 to 6 Celsius) cooler when a transparent wood window was used instead of a glass one. The researchers say this result suggests that their new material “could serve as an energy-efficient alternative to glass in windows.”
Another test involved incorporating silver nanowires into certain transparent wood samples. While these types of wires are not biodegradable, the researchers believe that finding an alternative material that can also enable electrical conductivity could open up several applications, including wearable sensors or coatings for solar cells.
Baruah says his team hopes to conduct experiments using other conductive materials like graphene to maintain their “fully natural” transparent woods. The team is also focused on efforts to keep costs down for commercial viability and as an example to young researchers facing the challenges of securing research funding..
“I want to send a message to my undergraduate students that you can do interesting research without spending thousands of dollars,” Baruah said
Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him onX,learn about his books atplainfiction.com, or email him directly atchristopher@thedebrief.org.