Transparent Wood: A Natural Alternative to Plastic and Glass

Imagine a smartphone with a wooden touchscreen or a house with wooden windows. Researchers are pioneering a process to create transparent wood—a sturdy, eco-friendly substitute for plastics that could also replace glass—using almost entirely natural materials and even making it electrically conductive.

Professor Bharat Baruah of Kennesaw State University, who draws on his woodworking hobby and childhood memories from Assam, India, led the research. Inspired by ancient building methods that used natural binders like sticky rice and egg whites to fortify cement, Baruah and his team set out to create a sustainable, transparent wood.

The process starts with balsa wood, which is composed of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. To make it transparent, the team removes the lignin and hemicellulose using a vacuum chamber with sodium sulfite, sodium hydroxide, and diluted bleach. The remaining porous cellulose network is then filled with a mixture of egg white, rice extract, and a curing agent, diethylenetriamine, to restore strength and transparency.

The resulting semi-transparent wood slices are durable and flexible. In one test, Baruah transformed a birdhouse into a tiny, one-windowed, insulated home. Under a heat lamp, the transparent wood kept the interior 9 to 11°F cooler than glass, indicating superior energy efficiency.

To broaden its applications, the team added silver nanowires, which rendered the material electrically conductive for potential use in wearable sensors or solar cell coatings. Although silver isn’t biodegradable, future work may explore alternatives like graphene. With these innovative, low-cost methods, the researchers hope to inspire sustainable design that marries ancient techniques with modern technology.

-This research was presented at the spring 2025 meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).