TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A group of researchers is developing transparent woods made almost entirely of natural materials such as egg whites and rice extract mixture to use as a glass substitute on windows and possibly phone screens. The study shows that the wood is not only semi-transparent but also durable and flexible for various applications.
"In the modern day, plastic is everywhere, including our devices that we carry around. And it’s a problem when we reach the end of that device’s life. It’s not biodegradable,” explains Bharat Baruah, a professor of chemistry at Kennesaw State University, quoted from a report by The American Chemical Society (ACS), on Wednesday, April 2, 2025.
"So, I asked, what if we can create something that’s natural and biodegradable instead?”
This research stemmed from Baruah's interest in woodworking. He realized that many previous studies used plastic materials such as epoxy to provide strength to transparent wood, but he wanted to find natural materials that could keep the wood strong and stable.
Through his childhood experience in Assam, India, which introduced traditional materials such as a mixture of sand, glutinous rice, and egg white to make cement, Baruah hypothesized that similar materials could be applied to transparent wood.
Wood, consisting of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, was modified by removing lignin and hemicellulose to make it transparent. After that, the wood pores were filled with a mixture of egg white and rice extract, as well as hardening agents to maintain its transparency.
Joined by Ridham Raval, an undergraduate student, they successfully transformed balsa wood into durable and flexible semi-transparent wood. The experiment's results showed that the transparent wood could be used as a substitute for glass, such as in windows.
To test energy efficiency, they turned a birdhouse into a small home with transparent wood windows. As a result, the temperature inside the birdhouse was 5 to 6 degrees Celsius lower compared to using glass.
Researchers also tested the wood's ability to conduct electricity by incorporating silver nano wires. Although silver nano wires cannot decompose naturally, the team hopes to replace them with natural conductive materials such as graphene in future research.
"I want to send a message to my undergraduate students that you can do interesting research without spending thousands of dollars," said Baruah.
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