A new super-technological material of plant origin and respectful of the environment could soon replace traditional glass in construction.
A new transparent material such as glass, obtained from wood processing, could become the heart of the windows of the future. This special plant-based polymer was developed by Junyong Zhu, a researcher at the US government's Forest Product Laboratory, in collaboration with the Universities of Maryland and Colorado. Vegetable glass is obtained by immersing very thin panels of low density balsa wood in a special chlorine bath. Once bleached, the slabs are penetrated by a vinyl polymer which gives them strength and transparency.
BETTER THAN GLASS. In the laboratory, this new material surpasses glass from every point of view: it is lighter than glass, more resistant, and is 5 times more efficient in insulating from heat and cold. In short, it seems the ideal material for construction - and, according to the researchers, its real strength is being truly green. Traditional glass is extremely energy-intensive and its production causes the emission of more than 25,000 tons of CO2 per year into the atmosphere. On the contrary, the new polymer is obtained from renewable sources and its production is already compatible with existing industrial processes and plants.