Scientists have created sponge wood nanogenerators

Hello dear subscribers and guests of my channel. All of us are surrounded by numerous sources of energy, but the catch is that we simply cannot connect to most of them.

In their new scientific work, engineers from Switzerland demonstrated an environmentally friendly method for making nanogenerators from spongy wood that can be used to create a wood floor that can generate electricity literally at every step.

How Sponge Wood Nanogenerators Work

The material created by scientists works with the so-called piezoelectric effect, the essence of which lies in the fact that when the material is compressed (in as a result of mechanical action), areas with positive and negative charges are formed on it, creating a voltage at connection.

In their new scientific work, engineers from ETH Zurich and EMPA decided to investigate the piezoelectric effect of a material such as wood. Normally, this material is not flexible enough to generate enough electricity. Therefore, scientists have found a way to modernize the tree to increase recoil.

They decided to subject the wood to a process called "delignification". The point is that lignins are natural polymers that play the role of supporting structures in plant cells, especially trees. It is this natural polymer that makes the tree itself and its bark so tough and durable.

The process of removing some of the lignins has made the wood more spongy. Thus, it could be easily compressed and then returned to its original state after the pressure on the spongy tree was released.

Two experiments in one

The scientists decided to initially test two options for extracting lignin. In the first case, they decided to soak the tree in a bath with hydrogen peroxide and acetic acid. And in the second case, they decided to use the mushroom Ganoderma applanatum, which decomposes lignin from wood.

Thus, two forms of spongy wood were obtained, which scientists tested as a piezoelectric generator.

The first in line was wood obtained using an acid bath. So the studied cube with sides of 1.5 cm was able to generate about 0.63 Volts. At the same time, the generator remained completely stable for over 600 cycles.

Then the engineers took 30 similar blocks, and subjected them to compression with a weight similar to the weight of an adult. The energy generated in this way was enough to light up the LCD.

Then came the turn of testing the tree treated with the mushroom. So such wood has shown itself as a generator even better. A similar cube produced a maximum voltage of 0.87 volts. In addition, the use of the mushroom is much more environmentally friendly and economical.

So the engineers suggest that the wood sponge generator can find application as energy-intensive flooring material and as wearable sensors. The scientists shared the results of the work done on the pages of the journals ACS Nano and Science Advances.

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