Wood-based superblack

Light is a powerful and sustainable resource, but it can be detrimental to the performance and longevity of optical devices. Materials with near-zero light reflectance, i.e. superblack materials, are sought to improve the performance of several light-centered technologies. Here we report a simple top-down strategy, guided by computational methods, to develop robust superblack materials following metal-free wood delignification and carbonization (1500 °C). Subwavelength severed cells evolve under shrinkage stresses, yielding vertically aligned carbon microfiber arrays with a thickness of ~100 µm and light reflectance as low as 0.36% and independent of the incidence angle. The formation of such structures is rationalized based on delignification method, lignin content, carbonization temperature and wood density. Moreover, our measurements indicate a laser beam reflectivity lower than commercial light stoppers in current use. Overall, the wood-based superblack material is introduced as a mechanically robust surrogate for microfabricated carbon nanotube arrays.

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Structural properties, Sustainability, Synthesis and processing

DOI

10.1038/s41467-023-43594-4

Citation

Zhao, B, Shi, X, Khakalo, S, Meng, Y, Miettinen, A, Turpeinen, T, Mi, S, Sun, Z, Khakalo, A, Rojas Gaona, O & Dufau Mattos, B 2023, ' Wood-based superblack ', Nature Communications, vol. 14, no. 1, 7875 . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43594-4

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https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202312117137

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[article-cris] Insinööritieteiden korkeakoulu / ENG

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