1.Wood Sponge
the greener way to clean up oceans!
Now, this is a material with a weird name, but that all will be justified when you learn more about it. The Wood Sponge is a new material developed by turning wood into a stripped down version of itself by treating with chemicals.
The process results in the removal of hemicellulose and lignin, which leaves with a body of cellulose.
The reason why the Wood Sponge tops our list is that of its area of application – to absorb oil from water. Oil and chemical spillage has resulted in unprecedented damage to water bodies all around the world, and we have been looking for more efficient ways to combat it.
The research team led by Xiaoqing Wang wanted to develop a new absorbent from renewable material, hence wood. The result is a sponge that can absorb 16-46 times its own weight.
Also, it can be reused up to 10 times by squeezing out the absorbed oil. This new sponge surpasses all other sponges or absorbents we use today in terms of capacity, quality, and reusability.
2.The self-healing material
it does it without external stimulant!
This material we are going to talk about is still in its early stage, but its properties are better than what we have ever seen before. Hence, this is a material we are going to seeing more in the future.
It is a self-healing material is a polymer that can heal itself by using carbon in the air. The invention is from MIT chemical engineers. The materials can not only repair but can also grow or strengthen from taking in carbon from the atmosphere. The technology resembles how plants take in carbon dioxide to grow tissues and become stronger.
A material that can absorb carbon from the atmosphere as an obvious advantage when we consider its ecological impact.
According to the researcher, this is the first carbon fixing material to exist outside of biological beings.
3.The strongest bio-material
stronger than steel and its biodegradable!
The strongest biomaterial known to man was the Spider silk, which is pound to pound stronger than steel. Many types of research have made to either replicate this material on a large scale or even surpass the spider silk in terms of strength, but they weren’t able to recreate such a material.
However, recent research conducted by Daniel Söderberg from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm might have broken the mold.
The team of researchers has invented a new material that can be touted as the strongest biomaterial ever produced. The best part of this material is that even though it is artificial, it is biodegradable.
Hence, it can be used as a great alternative to plastic and other non-degradable objects.
The material is made from cellulose nanofibers that are sourced from wood and plant body. The final structure has a tensile stiffness of 86 gigapascals (GPa) and a tensile strength of 1.57 GPa.
In other words, the new material is 8 times stiffer than a silk spider web.