Structural materials with excellent mechanical properties are vitally important for architectural application. However, the traditional structural materials with complex manufacturing processes cannot effectively regulate heat flow, causing a large impact on global energy consumption. Here, we processed a high-performance and inexpensive cooling structural material by bottom-up assembling delignified biomass cellulose fiber and inorganic microspheres into a 3D network bulk followed by a hot-pressing process; we constructed a cooling lignocellulosic bulk that exhibits strong mechanical strength more than eight times that of the pure wood fiber bulk and greater specific strength than the majority of structural materials. The cellulose acts as a photonic solar reflector and thermal emitter, enabling a material that can accomplish 24-h continuous cooling with an average dT of 6 and 8 °C during day and night, respectively. Combined with excellent fire-retardant and outdoor antibacterial performance, it will pave the way for the design of high-performance cooling structural materials.
Natural lignocellulose has been a significant renewable raw material attributable to its high specific mechanical performance, compared to the benefits of traditional reinforcing fibers. However, the unsatisfactory mechanical performance of lignocellulose-based materials has limited applications in many advanced engineering domains. Herein, we demonstrate that layered bulk delignified nanolignocellulose/brushite composites with a multifold increase in strength and toughness. Our procedure contains the partially removable lignin and hemicellulose from the nanolignocellulose and the precipitating process of brushite on the nanolignocellulose surface via the mechanochemical process and flow-directed assembly followed by hot-pressing, resulting in the complete toppling of cell walls and the densification of the nanolignocellulose/brushite composites with highly ordered layered structures. This composite exhibits an ultrastrong specific strength 1.8−4.4 times higher than that of modified lignocellulose-based materials, which surpasses that of most natural structural materials and some metals and alloys, opening a path for production of ultrastrong lignocellulose-based load-bearing materials in practical applications by various farming and forestry surplus operations.
Piezoresistive sensors, as an indispensable part of electronic and intelligent wearable devices, are often hindered by nonrenewable resources (graphene, conventional metal, or silicon). Biomass‐derived carbonaceous materials boast many advantages such as their light weight, renewability, and excellent chemical stabilization. However, a major challenge is that the strength and resilience of carbon‐based piezoresistive materials still falls short of requirements due to their random microarchitectures which cannot provide sufficiently good stress distribution. Encouraged by the excellent compressible properties and extraordinary strength of the Thalia dealbata stem, we propose a wood biomass‐derived carbon piezoresistive sensor with an artificial interconnected lamellar structure like the stem itself. By introducing a freezing‐induced assembly process, a wood‐based, completely delignified, nano‐lignocellulose material can be built into a “bridges supported lamellar” type architecture, where subsequent freeze‐drying and pyrolysis results in carbon aerogel monoliths. The resultant bioinspired carbon sponge has high compressibility and strength, of the order of two to five times higher than that of conventional metal, carbon, and organic materials. Combined with excellent biocompatible properties and chemical durability, these are useful properties for intelligent wearable devices and human‐motion detection.
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