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Wood Pulp Extract Stronger Than Carbon Fiber Or Kevlar
Zothecula writes "The Forest Products Laboratory of the US Forest Service has opened a US$1.7 million pilot plant for the production of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) from wood by-products materials such as wood chips and sawdust. Prepared properly, CNCs are stronger and stiffer than Kevlar or carbon fibers, so that putting CNC into composite materials results in high strength, low weight products. In addition, the cost of CNCs is less than ten percent of the cost of Kevlar fiber or carbon fiber. These qualities have attracted the interest of the military for use in lightweight armor and ballistic glass (CNCs are transparent), as well as companies in the automotive, aerospace, electronics, consumer products, and medical industries."
Who needs transparent aluminum when you've got transparent, bulletproof wood?
Anyone?
Transparent aluminum is ballistics-resistant so much so that it doesn't even scratch. It's also much more expensive.
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So I take it we'll be seeing the next president riding around in a wood-sided grocery getter?
Wouldn't it be great if we end up making the space elevator out of wood?
It seems as if being stiffer than Kevlar may limit its usefulness in certain applications, such as body armor and the like. That said, the summary mentioned composite materials that simply use it as a component. Any material scientists around who can comment on whether its an issue or how this stuff might change things?
....another crappy excuse to cut down trees.
I *knew* I should have patented the paper armor I made for myself when I was a kid.
Ezekiel 23:20
The product possibilities are endless, but I think bullet proof west with integrated brew station will be the greatest hit. Survive the tough battle, add water and yeast - instant celebratory beverage.
I'm aging rapidly, I bought a new game and had no idea if my machine was good for it.
One of the biggest problems with building a race car/truck is often the cost of the materials. The stiffer frames built from carbon fiber are insanely expensive. Imagine if we could build a frame out of this for around the cost of steel --the technology could then be used in ordinary cars, with a huge weight savings, and a safer, stronger frame. It could revolutionize the automotive design industry.
So does this mean that Ikea furniture will now be bullet proof too?
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Wood armor - we're back to the medieval days!
As with most (all?) engineered wood products - what about when it gets wet?
From TFA:
Swelling introduces a large number of nano-defects in the cellulose structure. Although there is little swelling of a single CNC, water can penetrate into amorphous cellulose with ease, pushing apart the individual cellulose molecules in those regions. In addition, the bonds and interfaces between neighboring CNC will be disrupted, thereby significantly reducing the strength of any material reinforced with CNCs. To make matters worse, water can move easily over the surface/interfaces of the CNCs, thereby allowing water to penetrate far into a composite containing CNCs.
They suggest painting it. To be honest, I'm a skeptic. We wore body armor during my time in Iraq, and the abuse that our gear received cannot be overstated. Rain, heat, jumping over walls, dealing with mud. No thanks, I'll stick with Kevlar.
Material, Elastic Modulus, Tensile Strength
CNC, 150 GPa, 7.5 GPa
Kevlar 49, 125 GPa, 3.5 GPa
Carbon fiber, 150 GPa, 3.5 GPa
Carbon nanotubes, 300 GPa, 20 GPa
So a great compromise material when you take cost into account, if it comes to fruition.
Maybe I'm not reading this right, but wouldn't this present huge fire hazards because it's essentially wood?
For those who seek perfection there can be no rest on this side of the grave.
Old idea comes around again. The chinese used paper to make armor, it was lighter than steel and stronger as well, plus with the right coating, waterproof.
So when can I buy a "wooden" bike frame? Extra bonus points if it can be composted (along with me) when it gets totaled by a hit-n-run driver.
Best idea for use of wood pulp ever: A self repairing, nearly torpedo proof floating air base. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Habakkuk
Stronger burn rate too, I assume.
So when can I order my super-light, super-stiff CNC composite racing bicycle? Please? Is there a pre-order process? Can I put it on lay-away?
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Wait a minute, what was the first reason?
Goes to show that Pykrete was ahead of it's time.
In the future, there will be a Legend of Zelda game where the Wooden Shield will be the best shield, rather than the starting shield.
My (non wood) vest came with a notice to avoid water/moisture.
Don't know if it as big an issue for military grade vests because special coatings may be applied....
Too many Google hits to bother listing.
No brain, no pain.
Ummm... from TFA: it's nemesis is water. This kind of kiboshes the whole idea IMO. I guess it could be good armour for fighting a war on Mars though.
Termites!
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Here goes the remains of the rain forests.
So now they have to come up with stronger nails so we can make something useful out of it?
Wood pulp *is* carbon fiber, think about it.
The invasion clearly has begun, where else could they have "discovered" this radical new use of wood pulp?!
"Ahh! I see you're in that indeterminate Schrodinger state where - oh, uh
Ok, a little more searious question, how well does it hold up to long term water exposure? Will it rot from sustained moisture or degrade out in the environment, and more or less than kevlar? A super fiber material is only super if it lasts a long time out in the environment.
This will require some years of development, but it certainly shows promise.
The strength and stiffness of a fiber are not the performance we'll directly obtain from the materials. It's more like a potential number. Typical 'carbon fiber' products have on the order of 60%-75% fiber and 40%-30% plastic by volume, where epoxy is one of the most common plastics. The carbon fibers contribute strength and stiffness, but it would fracture easily with a rigid binder. The softer plastic binder acts to share and redistribute loading efficiently (after some fibers break) to keep the carbon fibers more or less all carrying load effectively.
They'll have to go experiment until they find which plastics work well with this. That took a long time for composites since if the plastic binds too strongly to the fibers, the resulting composite is very brittle and loses a lot of potential strength. Also, to optimize the bond strength, carbon/kevlar/glass/etc fibers are typically treated with a 'sizing' that help the fibers bind optimally to a targeted plastic or set of plastics. Hopefully this new material can leapfrog off of the progress and work of the composites industry. Humidity will also be a concern that requires some testing and may cause some compromise on binder selection.
Also, 'typical' fiber properties really depend on the application. A typical aerospace carbon fiber is Hexcel IM7, which shows considerable improvement over the properties they reported in the article, and others can be a fair bit better or worse. The IM7 6k tow fiber is reported to have:
Ultimate Tensile Strength: 5.15 GPa
Elastic Modulus: 276 GPa
http://www.hexcel.com/resources/datasheets/carbon-fiber-data-sheets/im7.pdf
Sample properties of one finished product provide:
Ultimate Tensile Strength: 2.5 GPa
Elastic Modulus: 163 GPa
http://www.hexcel.com/Resources/DataSheets/Prepreg-Data-Sheets/8552_eu.pdf
A few years ago the least expensive carbon fiber would sell for ~$15/lb raw material with the epoxy typically around $9/lb, and the IM7 fiber above is probably an order of magnitude more costly. I don't know what figures they used for their cost comparison, but they can't really have the whole cradle to grave process figured out at this stage anyway, so we'll see what happens when they get some material fabricated.
There's a lot of work ahead, but this seems promising!
Seems to me a bacteria could be genetically engineered to eat this stuff, just like Duroplast. Could make its use in warfare untenable.
Geeks like to think that they can ignore politics, you can leave politics alone, but politics won't leave you alone.-rms
Far from it. Many boats are made by "cold molding", in which you start with a mold and build up your own plywood layers on top using thin veneers and epoxy resin. The result is light, strong, and very water resistant indeed if done properly. Some woods such as mahogany and utile are already extremely strong and stiff (comparing equivalent mass/area) compared to e.g. aluminum and fiberglass, and this looks like it would be more of the same, only much easier to form.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Look up Wood Epoxy Saturation Technique.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Paper demand is very sluggish in the developed world. The slow death (or metamorphosis) of the newspaper industry that is directly related to the digital publishing revolution is clearly responsible. The less-paper world is coming. It's coming later than many thought it would, but the paper companies are really feeling it. A friend who follows the paper industry told me that projected paper demand is a full thirty percent lower now than expected in the developed world. Not that demand is actually shrinking, it is just growing slower -- a lot slower -- than earlier trends projected. The developing world is more robust. Corporate investments in forests are by nature long-term. And there is a glut due to demand not growing as projected. Hence intensive research -- as seen in this FA -- into other ways to use pulp in quantity.
I briefly looked for something comprehensive to make my point and found this article from Paper Age. It is pretty general, but the writing is on the wall-mounted tablet display.
"No fear. No envy. No meanness." Liam Clancy
The US Forestry Service ?!?!
We've got to shut these big government agencies down. They provide absolutely no value are are bleeding the nation dry.
http://www.renovobikes.com/
The first facility to produce nanocrystalline cellulose on a large scale will be in Windsor, Quebec, Canada. FPInnovations and Domtar are partnering to produce and commercialize nonocrystalline cellulose under the name "CelluForce" at Domtar's pulp mill in Windsor. $36 million (including federal and provincial dollars) are being invested into the construction of the plant.
Both the aerospace and automotive industries are interested in nanocrystalline cellulose as an ingredient for lightweight, high-strength composite materials.
It also has other potential - earlier this year, a 16 year old student discovered the cellulose of tree pulp also has anti-aging benefits!
I can't wait until this material is used in road bike designs!
Tubing would suck.
http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2009/03/under-the-skin-of-astons-one-77-supercar.html
http://www.speedhunters.com/2009/06/car_builder_gt_gt_pagani_factory_tour_pt_1/
These are showing up on several high end vehicles and even bycycles. If the CNC's become commercially viable it would be much cheaper to make monocoque chassis for a variety of vehicles.
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
This material has a fatal flaw in its current form. From the article:
"CNCs separated from wood pulp are typically a fraction of a micron long"
That means you should not hold your breath while waiting for CNCs to replace kevlar and carbon fibers in the majority of applications. Kevlar and carbon fibers are available in very long continous lengths (thousands of feet), which allows weaving them into fabrics for use in composite material fabrication. In their current form CNCs are basically a very fine powder material instead of actual recogizable fibers. You could take some carbon fibers and ground them into a fine powder, but any composite material made from that will be far weaker than when long fibers are used.
I'm not interested until it's strong enough to use as a space elevator ribbon.
Everybody dance now!
Dun! Dun! Dun-dun-Everybody dance now!
Your brain is not a computer.
In fact the Marcos sports car was made with steam-bent marine plywood panels and has proved both robust and maintainable, just far too expensive for production use.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Sounds like a good material for space craft bodies.
Corporate investments in forests are by nature long-term. And there is a glut due to demand not growing as projected. Hence intensive research -- as seen in this FA -- into other ways to use pulp in quantity.
They could slash them down, carbonize them, then bury them and sell carbon tax credits, or sell it as "green" coal. But i suppose profit margins are low in that kind of plan.
But no need to charcoal the trees. Just bury them for carbon credit and grow new ones. We could put them in old coal mines. Wait a minute.... thought coming in.....Hmmm. It occurs to me that simply by making paper you are sequestering carbon. When your Sunday Times finds its way into an anaerobic pocket of the landfill (provided you didn't recycle it.) the carbon in it is nicely isolated from the atmosphere, at least for a solid period of time.
Okay. Listen up. Stop recycling. I'm calling my attorney. We're going to bin our paper and get rich from carbon credits. Woohoo!
"No fear. No envy. No meanness." Liam Clancy