Materials Innovation for a Better World

Transparent Wood

Transparent wood has emerged as a new class of sustainable structural and optical materials that combines the mechanical strength of wood with high optical transparency. Although the concept of transparent wood was first proposed in the early 1990s, the field was largely dormant until 2016, when two independent research groups at the University of Maryland (USA) and KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden) revitalized the area with pioneering publications.

In early 2016, Our group (then at University of Maryland) introduced highly anisotropic transparent wood composites that achieved optical transmittance of up to 90% while preserving the natural aligned wood microstructure. A the same time in KTH, Professor Lars Berglund’s team reported an optically transparent wood composite by removing lignin and infiltrating the porous cellulose scaffold with a refractive-index-matched polymer.

We subsequently demonstrated that transparent wood exhibits superior thermal insulation compared with glass while providing high light transmission and strong light diffusion, making it an attractive material for energy-efficient windows and buildings.

These complementary breakthroughs established transparent wood as a multifunctional material capable of integrating structural, optical, and thermal performance.  

Since 2016, researchers worldwide have expanded the concept to include transparent wood for smart windows, solar cells, light management, optical devices, structural materials, and energy-efficient buildings. Today, transparent wood is widely recognized as one of the most promising examples of high-value wood engineering, illustrating how renewable materials can replace conventional glass and plastics in next-generation technologies. 

Selective Publications: 

  • Zhu, M.; Song, J.; Li, T.; Gong, A.; Wang, Y.; Dai, J.; Yao, Y.; Luo, W.; Henderson, D.; Hu, L.*  Highly Anisotropic, Highly Transparent Wood Composites. Adv. Mater. 2016, 28, 5181–5187. 
  • Li, T.; Zhu, M.; Yang, Z.; Song, J.; Dai, J.; Yao, Y.; Luo, W.; Pastel, G.; Yang, B.; Hu, L.* Wood Composite as an Energy Efficient Building Material: Guided Sunlight Transmittance and Effective Thermal Insulation. Adv. Energy Mater. 2016, 1601122.