VOA慢速英語：科學家造出比鋼鐵堅硬的超級木頭

Can Wood Be Stronger Than Steel?

科學家造出比鋼鐵堅硬的超級木頭

Researchers say they have created a new super-material in the laboratory. They say it is stronger, lighter and costs less than steel.

研究人員表示，他們在實驗室中造出了一種新的超級材料。他們稱這種材料材料比鋼鐵還要堅硬、輕盈而且成本更低。

But the new material is not a product of high technology or a metallic substance. It is wood.

但是這種新材料不是什么高科技產(chǎn)品或金屬物質(zhì)，它就是木頭。

Researchers Liangbing Hu and Teng Li are with the University of Maryland in the United States.

胡良斌和李騰這兩位研究人員就職于美國的馬里蘭大學。

By using a few chemicals, heat and pressure, they have made wood three times denser and 10 times stronger. Hu says that means it can compete with some of the world's strongest materials.

通過利用一些化學物質(zhì)、高溫和壓力，他們使木材的密度提高了3倍，強度提高了10倍。胡良斌表示，這意味著它可以同世界上最堅硬的材料一較高下。

"We're interested in replacing steel and carbon fibers with strong wood structures," he said.

他說：“我們有興趣用堅硬的木質(zhì)結構來替換鋼鐵和碳纖維。”

Strong, but not costly

堅硬但是廉價

The process does not require any special raw, unprocessed material. Hu said that means the cost of the product will be relatively low. He added, "We can start with very cheap wood, and we can also start with very fancy, expensive wood. But in the end, ultimately we get very similar performance."

該過程并不需要任何特別原始、未加工的材料。胡良斌表示，這意味著這種產(chǎn)品的成本相對低廉。他補充說：“我們可以用非常廉價的木材，也可以用精致、昂貴的木材。但是最終得到的結果非常類似。”

The researchers are calling their product "super wood." It is made by partially removing a natural polymer called lignin.

研究人員稱他們的產(chǎn)品為“超級木材。”它是通過去除一種被稱之為木質(zhì)素的天然聚合物而制成的。

Hu explained that "lignin is like a binder to hold all the components together in natural wood. In our process, we found out to be able to densify the wood completely, we have to remove some of these binders."

胡良斌解釋說：“木質(zhì)素就像是天然木頭里面固定所有元素的粘合劑。在我們的實驗過程中，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)要完全提升木頭的密度，就得去除其中一些粘合劑。”

Strong chemicals are put on the wood. The chemicals remove about half of its lignin. Then, after being left in extreme heat and pressurized for a day, the treated wood is ready. The researchers say the wood is strong enough to build automobiles, airplanes, wind turbines and more. A report on their findings was published in the journal Nature.

給木頭添加高強度的化學物質(zhì)，這些化學物質(zhì)會去除一半左右的木質(zhì)素。然后，在經(jīng)過一天的極度高溫和加壓之后，這種經(jīng)過處理的木頭就制成了。研究人員表示，這種木頭的強度足以制造汽車、飛機、風力發(fā)電機等等。他們這項研究結果發(fā)表在《自然》雜志上。

The researchers say super-strength wood would have less of an effect on the environment than the steel or other metals it could replace. However, their process is not pollution-free. It uses some of the same chemicals involved in making paper.

研究人員表示，這種超級強度的木頭比它可能要取代的鋼鐵或其它金屬對環(huán)境的影響更小。然而，它們的處理過程也并不是沒有污染。它使用了一些跟造紙類似的化學物質(zhì)。

Researcher Teng Li says he and Hu are finding many new ways to use wood, including creating batteries and see-through wood and paper.

研究人員李騰表示，他和胡良斌正在尋找木材的很多新的用途，包括制造電池、透明木材以及紙張。

"Wood has been existing on Earth more than a million years. And human beings have been using wood for furniture, construction for more than 10 thousand years. And the more we worked on this material, we realized, we have never fully exhausted the potential of this amazing material."

李騰說：“木頭在地球上已經(jīng)存在了一百多萬年。人類將木頭用于家具和建筑上也超過了一萬年。我們越是研究這項材料，就越了解到我們從未充分利用這種神奇材料的潛力。”

Other scientists are finding new uses for wood as well. Researchers in Sweden have reported making wood-based super-strong fibers for clothing and other materials.

其他科學家也在尋找木材的新用途。瑞典研究人員報告了用于制作服裝和其它材料的木質(zhì)超強纖維。

I'm Jonathan Evans.

喬納森·埃文斯報道。