Transparent Wood: Current Achievements and Ongoing Challenges
A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Analysis and Characterization".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2026 | Viewed by 147
Special Issue Editors
Interests: hybrid O/I systems; sol–gel processes; biomacromolecules; biopolymers; flame retardance; structure–property–processing relationships; thermal degradation; polymer (nano)composites
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In the 1990s, it was proven for the first time that wood could be made transparent. AI-Transpwood (1 January 2024--31 December 2026) is a European project funded under the Horizon-CL4-2023-RESILIENCE-01 call. The project's primary goal is to develop an AI-driven, multiscale methodology for creating new, safe, and sustainable wood-based material systems. It will also demonstrate the concept of transparent wood (TW), a promising new material with potential applications in several industrial fields, including construction, automotive, electronics, and furniture. TW is a very recent material, which is obtained from native wood through the removal of lignin, one of the main components of wood, together with cellulose and hemicellulose, from the wood channels, the infiltration of a monomer, and the subsequent polymerization/curing. This way, it is possible to obtain a light material, tough and mechanically robust, with high transparency and low thermal conductivity, among other peculiarities. The material can be further functionalized to become flame retardant, luminescent, or electrically conductive. Entitled 'Transparent Wood: Current Achievements and Ongoing Challenges', this Special Issue aims to showcase recent advances and trends in transparent wood, with the goal of combining sustainability, reliability, and performance. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Transparency in wood materials;
- Flame-retardant transparent wood;
- Sustainability in transparent wood materials;
- Functional properties of transparent wood;
- Structural properties of transparent wood;
- Advanced applications of transparent wood;
- Modeling of transparent wood.
We hope to receive numerous submissions to the Special Issue.
Prof. Dr. Giulio Malucelli
Prof. Dr. Alberto Mariani
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- transparent wood
- optical features
- sustainability
- functional properties
- structural properties
- modeling
- applications
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