Revolution in windows and screen? New wood with rice and egg whites can replace the glass

Wood is semi-transparent with the help of biodegradable foods. The inspiration came from the streets of India, of buildings over 500 years.

It may seem surreal, but a new type of wood made with egg whites and rice extract is an alternative environment friendly to glass and plastic used in windows and screens of smartphones and computers.

At least, this is the promise of scientists at the State University of Kennesaw, Georgia, USA, who ensure that it has made this wood transparent enough with these natural and biodegradable foods.

Transparent wood is not exactly a novelty. It has already been produced with methods of removal of its component, lignin, and its replacement with synthetic epoxy, explains the. But this process is expensive and complex, which led the team led by New bharat Looking for a way to create more accessible and more sustainable semi-transparent wood.

“The previous examples of transparent wood are very difficult to synthesize, difficult to make and spend a lot of time, energy and money to manufacture, so we thought to create something that could be made easy and naturally,” explains the researcher.

A Inspiration came from India. In Assam, some historical buildings mix cement with rice, sand and egg whites – a method that was already used about 500 years ago And that apparently results, since these buildings are standing to this day. An example of this is Rang ghara 7 -storey real sports hall pavilion of the eighteenth century and one of Asia’s oldest amphitheaters built with a mixture of rice paste, sugar and egg white.

“At that time, the cement was like this and these buildings are still there, after more than four or five centuries, and that always fascinated me,” says Baruah.

From food to the window

The team began by treating ferry wood leaves with a combination of sodium sulfite, sodium hydroxide and diluted liaxia in a vacuum chamber. The process removed Lingina and hemicellulose, leaving a pulp -based structure behind. Then the scientists filled the empty spaces of the wood with the mixture of rice extract and egg whites, led it to dry in the oven at 60 ° C and at the end came out a semi-transparent wooden plate with a slight brown tone.

“It is not 100% transparent, but it is semi-transparent and biodegradable“Baruah holds. But it was necessary to show that the material results.

For this, the researchers built a small bird house with a window made with the new transparent wood. When placed under a heat lamp, the interior of the bird house remained 5 to 6 ° C fresher than an identical model with a glass window, which proved the isolation capacity of the new material.

Windows and smartphone screens may one day be constructed from transparent wood laced with egg whites and safely composted at the end of their life.

— New Scientist (@newscientist)

However, the final results have not yet been published – they will only be presented at the American Chemical Society Spring meeting in San Diego, California. But there are those who hurry the project.

“Good way to ensure that vegans do not use mobile phones in the future,” said a user on social network X.