I will discuss our recent results on multifunctional structures based natural wood materials toward sustainability. I will briefly discuss transparent wood as a replacement of glass for energy efficient building, transparent paper with advanced light management as a replacement of plastics for flexible, biodegradable electronics, and super strong nanopaper as a replacement of steel for automobile and building applications.

I will then focus on wood nanostructures toward energy-water nexus including the following technological areas:

(1) Solar steam generation for water desalination;

(2) 3D wood membrane for waste water filtration (removal of heavy metals and organic waste);

(3) Biodegradable wood-based batteries;

(4) Microbial fuel cells using waster water.

References:

(1) Mesoporous, Three-Dimensional Wood Membrane Decorated with Nanoparticles for Highly Efficient Water Treatment, ACS Nano, 2017, online.

(2) Wood Composite as an Energy Efficient Building Material: Guided Sunlight Transmittance and Effective Thermal Insulation, Advanced Energy Materials, 2016, 6, 1601122.

(3) Transparent and Haze Wood Composites for Highly Efficient Broadband Light Management in Solar Cells, Nano Energy, 26, 3322.

(4) Anisotropic Transparent Wood-Composites, Advanced Materials, 2016, 28, 5181.