Transparent wood?

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neil_w

neil_w

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neil_w said:
Hey, anyone want to try this?
https://electrek.co/2021/02/12/these-researchers-invented-energy-efficient-transparent-wood/It sounds quite surprisingly straightforward, doable for the hobbyist. The details of the epoxy infusion are unspecified in the article, but I'll bet some vacuum bagging with laminating epoxy would do it.

Who wants to be the first person to have transparent wood fins?
Click to expand...

Didn't Scotty tell us about something similar in one of the Star Trek Movies... :startrekspock:
 
neil_w said:
Hey, anyone want to try this?
https://electrek.co/2021/02/12/these-researchers-invented-energy-efficient-transparent-wood/It sounds quite surprisingly straightforward, doable for the hobbyist. The details of the epoxy infusion are unspecified in the article, but I'll bet some vacuum bagging with laminating epoxy would do it.

Who wants to be the first person to have transparent wood fins?
Click to expand...
I make my own charcoal. I have a microscope. Most of wood is dead space after removing cellular guts. The cellulose fibers of wood are afforded strength by cross-linking with lignin. They oxidatively stained the lignin to a new compound that is probably decently characterized (from the paper industry) but not mentioned in the article. Not unthinkable that H2O2 might bust up the structural cross-linking, but that's a guess. Then they filled in all the gaps with heavy epoxy. Sounds super cool in principle, but I don't really appreciate the difference in strength/structural characteristics between a thin slab of dense epoxy and a thin slab of dense epoxy "supported" by a more flexible cellulose rebar-like substructure. Seems kinda cool, but we really need to know more about it's structural properties to assess real-life utility. They're talking about a glass replacement because it is supposedly stronger with better insulating properties than glass. They don't mention comparative glass/clear "wood" thicknesses or densities. How heavy is it?
 
lakeroadster said:
Indeed it was. Technology moves on.... :startrek1::startrekspock:
Click to expand...
That was by far the most tongue in cheek Star Trek movie.

had my favorite line. Kirk, trying to explain Spock’s weird affect to a 1980s Earth Woman in San Francisco. Spock is essentially wearing a big white bathrobe with the waist band ties around his ears.

“I think he did a little too much LDS”

 
BABAR said:
That was by far the most tongue in cheek Star Trek movie.

had my favorite line. Kirk, trying to explain Spock’s weird affect to a 1980s Earth Woman in San Francisco. Spock is essentially wearing a big white bathrobe with the waist band ties around his ears.

“I think he did a little too much LDS”

Click to expand...


I worked with some folks that had done a little to much LDS...

One guy told me a story about him and his buddies running out of gas. They poured some water in the gas tank and the vehicle started. I tried to explain how the pick up tube in the fuel tank is oriented such that the gas floated on the water and the pick up tube could then pick up the remaining fuel.... but he kept saying it was Devine intervention.
 
Funkworks said:
I eat Vietnamese spring rolls just because I’m amazed at the transparent rice wrapper.
View attachment 451274
(They're also delicious!)
Click to expand...
Super super tasty! Wrappers are super cheap. And really easy to roll, once you get your rhythm going. You'll mess up the first 10 or so, to varying extents, but then be rolling like a pro! Biggest mistake is not working fast enough. One dip in room temp water. Get to filling and rolling pronto. Or they'll stick & tear. If you have your ingredients all cut up ahead of time, it takes 10 seconds to assemble/roll/store one. Once completed can be stored/refrigerated for days, depending on what you put inside. Sauce is key, but that's not so time sensitive. Sooo easy, sooo simple, soooo tasty, and cheap as chips or not so much depending on what protein you put inside...

Loves me some spring rolls!!!
 
I'm keeping that recipee. Because they're actually somewhat expensive and hard to find. Love the peanut sauce.
 
We had a 100 ton hydraulic press to mess with.
Put a 1” square of 1/2” pine between a couple slabs of steel and put the squeeze on it. What came out was less than 0.02 thick and close to transparent.

M
 
MClark said:
We had a 100 ton hydraulic press to mess with.
Put a 1” square of 1/2” pine between a couple slabs of steel and put the squeeze on it. What came out was less than 0.02 thick and close to transparent.

M
Click to expand...
Picture would be fun, but actually, anything thin enough including metals will be transparent.
 
Funkworks said:
I'm keeping that recipee. Because they're actually somewhat expensive and hard to find. Love the peanut sauce.
Click to expand...
Expensive in a restaurant maybe, but cheap as can be when homemade. A stack of 25 or 50 8-10"-diameter thin rice paper wrappers costs a few bucks. Don't get wonton wrappers or egg roll wrappers by accident (although those are tasty, too)... If no Asian markets nearby, Amazon has 'em, but price isn't so fantastic. The dried wrappers will store almost forever in a cabinet, but they're delicate and easy to snap pieces off until moistened. The biggest mistake is waiting until they're fully moistened before you start loading & rolling--by the time you finish loading the papers'll be soaked through and tear real easily (you can use a broken piece as a patch). I have a plate of water on my left and a rolling plate on my right with all the ingredients close at hand. One quick wet dip (one side is enough, but do both sides if you're both fast and bold) move to dry plate, load 'em up and roll like a burrito. Lotta online tutorials. Always a fave. Bottled peanut sauces are ok, but homemade is super simple to make, too. And there are many many sauces that go with spring rolls that are equally delicious as peanut sauces. Mae Ploy or similar is a sweet but spicy citrusy chilli sauce that's a staple, and a fave. Tons of others. If you're making a pile of them, they will stick together. Easy to fix with a swipe of oil where they touch (finger or paintbrush or paper towel wet with just a little canola oil or other flavorless oil. Storing leftovers? Meh. You won't have that problem. There's never leftovers!

My biggest problem is the same one that I have building soft tacos and burritos where I almost always overload them before rolling. Tortillas are a lot more forgiving than wet rice paper--every gringo finds this out the hard way, so don't feel bad if the first couple completely fall apart, hah ha!
 
MClark said:
We had a 100 ton hydraulic press to mess with.
Put a 1” square of 1/2” pine between a couple slabs of steel and put the squeeze on it. What came out was less than 0.02 thick and close to transparent.

M
Click to expand...
Dang, now I'm really curious about how that much compression would alter the burn characteristics of the wood after making charcoal (for BP) with a bucket of flat-compressed 2" diameter willow sticks!!!

I still have a ton of tomato stems (hollow and highly vascularized) and cucumber leaves (hairy) dried and waiting to make charcoal (hence, BP) from. Why? Just because...

And I still have a small amount of BP leftover that smells like rum!!! Serious--when the pandemic hoarding went full-force, I absolutely could not find the 91% isopropyl alcohol (or 70%) at Walmart that I prefer for granulating BP. Before I found some overpriced Everclear (95% EtOH) at a nondescript liquor store (most used for hand sanitizer), I sacrificed a bit of an old bottle of Bacardi 151 Rum (only 75% EtOH, but did the trick). And even after thorough drying, that jar of BP still smelled like rum!!! Until you hit it with a flame--then it was just some fast-ass BP with that regular distinctive BP smell!! I think Bacardi stopped making that 151-proof rum a few years back, but I have sent some of their last stocks halfway to the moon, hah ha!!!
 
They already have transparent aluminum. Scotty planted the seed (formula) in 1986. I bet the military is using it for top secret projects at area 51

-Bob
 
"Aluminum" is an element and it's properties are set. If you add something, it's referred to as an alloy or a ceramic.

"Wood" covers dried up tree cells. If you add something, it can still be "wood".

In either case, you might be able to play make a metamaterial version, where you keep the same composition but make some kind of heterogeneous structure (like sponges, Swiss cheeze, chocolate chip muffins, sandwiches, chipboards, etc., all of which could be made of pure Aluminum or combined with anything else). There are limitless variations here, so who knows where it can lead. It's a specialty one can spend a lifetime studying.
 
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