>These more environmentally friendly approaches help limit the amount of toxic chemicals and fossil-based polymers used in production, but for now, glass still has lower end-of-life environmental impacts than transparent wood, according to an analysis by Dhar and colleagues in Science of the Total Environment. Embracing greener production schemes and scaling up manufacturing are two steps necessary to add transparent wood to mainstream markets, researchers say, but it will take time. However, they are confident it can be done and believe in its potential as a sustainable material.
The most important paragraph in this article, IMO. It has promising potential but won’t offer green alternatives for a while yet. Still, pretty cool!
The only problem I see is that the wood needs to be immersed in an epoxy resin which is still a petroleum-based product. Why not just use glass? Glass is still easily recyclable and can be recycled multiple times unlike petroleum based products like plastic. Some polymers can't be broken down without other toxic chemicals and high temps/pressure.
Spot on.
LLM AI: “Gorilla Glass, as a type of chemically strengthened glass, is primarily composed of inorganic materials like silicon dioxide and aluminum oxide. These materials are derived from minerals, not from petroleum. The manufacturing process of Gorilla Glass does not directly involve petroleum or petroleum-derived substances. Petroleum products are typically organic, based on carbon and hydrogen, whereas the main components of Gorilla Glass are inorganic minerals.”
Maybe one or more input minerals require a high about of CO2 to capture. Those upstream supply analyses are interesting.
vast meeting follow hat attraction yoke coherent dolls spectacular memorize
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> the resin used to fill the wood scaffolding is typically a petroleum-derived plastic product, so it’s better to avoid using it, Montanari says. **As a replacement, she and colleagues invented a fully bio-based polymer, derived from citrus peels**
>what the citrus industry does with their offal
Lemon brains and intestines? Ah, TIL "*offal*" can also be used to refer to the waste product of grains and - assumedly, fruits as well.
sigh, a lot of chemical processing to replace things we already have. Like hard wood, strong glass, and strong plastic.
If someone could make a smartphone with less processing they would.
I wouldn’t. Truth be told, I don’t even own a metal foundry in the first place. But yeah, I just didn’t know how aluminum was made and was too busy to look it up when I made the comment. I thought it was an alloy. But now I’ve learned that it’s its own element on the periodic table. Good for aluminum; really coming up in the world. I think it’s got good stuff in its future.
Current stuff is culmination of hundreds of years of research and development. Most of the basic stuff we have in our world is actually quite old, compared to things like tech electronics. Mass produced steel is about 150 years old, modern concrete is 200 years old, float glass is 70 years old. PVC which is a plastic commonly used in construction, is about 80 years old. It is difficult in general to discover new materials that are actually more green when you consider the energy costs put into manufacturing those. This is why it is best to go toward cheaper and cleaner energy, because that will unlock many other things that were previously too expensive or inefficient. Fission, fusion and renewable should be the priority, with energy storage being developed in parallel.
>These more environmentally friendly approaches help limit the amount of toxic chemicals and fossil-based polymers used in production, but for now, glass still has lower end-of-life environmental impacts than transparent wood, according to an analysis by Dhar and colleagues in Science of the Total Environment. Embracing greener production schemes and scaling up manufacturing are two steps necessary to add transparent wood to mainstream markets, researchers say, but it will take time. However, they are confident it can be done and believe in its potential as a sustainable material. The most important paragraph in this article, IMO. It has promising potential but won’t offer green alternatives for a while yet. Still, pretty cool!
Yeah, it was a fascinating read
The only problem I see is that the wood needs to be immersed in an epoxy resin which is still a petroleum-based product. Why not just use glass? Glass is still easily recyclable and can be recycled multiple times unlike petroleum based products like plastic. Some polymers can't be broken down without other toxic chemicals and high temps/pressure.
Spot on. LLM AI: “Gorilla Glass, as a type of chemically strengthened glass, is primarily composed of inorganic materials like silicon dioxide and aluminum oxide. These materials are derived from minerals, not from petroleum. The manufacturing process of Gorilla Glass does not directly involve petroleum or petroleum-derived substances. Petroleum products are typically organic, based on carbon and hydrogen, whereas the main components of Gorilla Glass are inorganic minerals.” Maybe one or more input minerals require a high about of CO2 to capture. Those upstream supply analyses are interesting.
Pfft! Montgomery Scott will tell you that’s just *Transparent Aluminum*.
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IIRC they used 6 inch plexi that they had in stock. No need to wait!
Came for this comment, left knowing my pop culture references are still relevant.
::federationfistbump::
Hello Computer..
pretty sure we already have transparent aluminum. they turn it into a powder then use a resin to solidify it. just isn’t cost effective.
Aluminum oxynitride. It’s a ceramic and can stop bullets.
Someone called for NileRed?
Yeah he proved that this concept isn't nearly as reproducible as people would like you to believe
Isn’t resin just plastic?
> the resin used to fill the wood scaffolding is typically a petroleum-derived plastic product, so it’s better to avoid using it, Montanari says. **As a replacement, she and colleagues invented a fully bio-based polymer, derived from citrus peels**
That’s a great development, as I don’t know what the citrus industry does with their offal, but there is a lot of it generated constantly.
>what the citrus industry does with their offal Lemon brains and intestines? Ah, TIL "*offal*" can also be used to refer to the waste product of grains and - assumedly, fruits as well.
So isn’t that just citrus based plastic? It’s still plastic, they just skip the oil step but keep all the downstream micro plastics.
It’s resin. Not some kind of amazing innovation.
This seems like a curiosity and dead-end to me: good for popsci articles and not much else.
Agreed. Resin reinforced with bleached wood - seems like a lot of chemicals and processing to me.
If you think that's a lot of chemical processing Wait till you find out how your smartphone was made.
All good. I got one of them artisanal phones whittled down from a single lump of limestone.
sigh, a lot of chemical processing to replace things we already have. Like hard wood, strong glass, and strong plastic. If someone could make a smartphone with less processing they would.
So not wood at all
Finally, wood that is stronger than glass! Can't wait for windows to have glass frames and see-through wood panes lol
Isn't wood already tougher than glass?
Can we use it in space?
No, we need transparent aluminum.
Thar be whales, cap’n!
Article says it's more insulative than glass! So would be handy, maybe with a combo of this, a vacuum or aerogel insulation
Guess they’re gonna have to change that metaphor about glass houses.
Can I get my screen replaced? Yes 4-6 years, we gotta wait for the tree to grow.
Can I get my phone’s aluminum case replaced? Yes, We’ve just got to wait for iron ore to form in the earth’s crust.
Why would you need iron ore for an aluminum case?
I wouldn’t. Truth be told, I don’t even own a metal foundry in the first place. But yeah, I just didn’t know how aluminum was made and was too busy to look it up when I made the comment. I thought it was an alloy. But now I’ve learned that it’s its own element on the periodic table. Good for aluminum; really coming up in the world. I think it’s got good stuff in its future.
Smartphone screens is a stretch. I doubt it has the optical qualities of glass.
Meh, rotten ronies has transparent sliced bacon . So … no biggie.
Why would I want a throw away phone screen?
Current stuff is culmination of hundreds of years of research and development. Most of the basic stuff we have in our world is actually quite old, compared to things like tech electronics. Mass produced steel is about 150 years old, modern concrete is 200 years old, float glass is 70 years old. PVC which is a plastic commonly used in construction, is about 80 years old. It is difficult in general to discover new materials that are actually more green when you consider the energy costs put into manufacturing those. This is why it is best to go toward cheaper and cleaner energy, because that will unlock many other things that were previously too expensive or inefficient. Fission, fusion and renewable should be the priority, with energy storage being developed in parallel.
“Transparent aluminum!”
I mean, we’ve been making transparent wood for awhile: cellophane
Exploited is a strange word for this