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Optically Transparent Wood: Recent Progress, Opportunities, and Challenges

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PROGRESS REPORT
Transparent Wood
Optically Transparent Wood: Recent Progress, Opportunities,
and Challenges
Yuanyuan Li,* Elena Vasileva, Ilya Sychugov, Sergei Popov, and Lars Berglund
Transparent wood is an emerging load-bearing material reinvented from
natural wood scaffolds with added light management functionalities. Such
material shows promising properties for buildings and related structural
applications, including its renewable and abundant origin, interesting optical
properties, outstanding mechanical performance, low density, low thermal
conductivity, and great potential for multifunctionalization. In this study, a
detailed summary of recent progress on the transparent wood research topic
is presented. Remaining questions and challenges related to transparent
wood preparation, optical property measurements, and transparent wood
modification and applications are discussed.
1. Introduction
With increasing energy demand and requirements for environ-
mental conservation, replacement of petroleum-based materials
with bio-based materials is an interesting opportunity. Wood
from trees is a key resource in the Northern Hemisphere due
to its abundance (global number of trees ≈3 trillion),[1] excel-
lent mechanical properties,[2] and potential for functionaliza-
tion.[3–7] The chemical composition with high-strength cellulose
nanofibrils and complex hierarchical structure are important
factors contributing to the excellent properties of this native
composite.[8] This includes sophisticated nanocomposite struc-
ture, characteristic anisotropic organization, complex porosity
combining micro-, meso-, and macropores, and chemical com-
position of three complementary structural components of
high-strength cellulose, soft and hygroscopic hemicelluloses,
and the stabilizing phenolic lignin structures. Wood is typically
used as structural materials or as the basis for cellulose/cellu-
losic fibers, for instance, used in buildings, for printing, and
as packaging materials. Wood modification is often carried out
Dr. Y. Y. Li, Prof. L. Berglund
Wallenberg Wood Science Center
Department of Fiber and Polymer Technology
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
SE-10044 Stockholm, Sweden
E-mail: yua@kth.se
E. Vasileva, Prof. I. Sychugov, Prof. S. Popov
Department of Applied Physics
School of Engineering Science
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
SE-16440 Kista, Sweden
The ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article
can be found under https://doi.org/10.1002/adom.201800059.
DOI: 10.1002/adom.201800059
Adv. Optical Mater. 2018, 6, 1800059 1800059  (1 of 14)
www.advopticalmat.de
to improve wood properties for existing
applications,[8] for instance, reducing
moisture sensitivity. However, designing
advanced wood materials combing struc-
tural performance with new functions
offers new possibilities to extend the range
of properties and applications of wood.[9,10]
Transparent wood is an example of
multifunctional wood composites.[11] The
first report on transparent wood is from
Fink in 1992 to facilitate wood morphology
studies.[12] Later on, engineering use of
transparent wood was suggested by com-
bining mechanical performance considera-
tions with optical transmittance studies.[3,13]
After that, several studies were published along similar engi-
neering use considerations.[14–16] With the addition of optical
transmittance to basic wood properties, transparent wood facili-
tates wood anatomy studies,[12] and it can be used in light-trans-
mitting smart buildings,[3,14,17] electronic devices, and in pho-
tonic devices such as photovoltaic cells and light source.[9,18,19]
Several works also briefly discussed the transparent wood as a
part of functionalized wood when reviewing the wood nanotech-
nologies.[20,21] In the present study, recent progress and related
challenges about transparent wood are summarized in detail, as
well as mechanisms of importance to optical properties.
2. Wood Structures
Wood is of low density due to its polymeric origin and hollow
cells functioning as liquid transport channels. Strength and
fracture toughness are related to the composite nature of
wood, including multiscale hierarchical structure and the
nanofibrous nature of cellulose (Figure 1a).[22] This has been
discussed in many reviews.[8,23,24] The hierarchical material
structure starts at the millimeter scale of annual rings, via cells
in the form of hollow fibers, their layered cell walls, and the
nanoscale composite structuring of those layers further down
to molecules making up the cellulose nanofibrils (Figure 1a).
Cellulose is one of the three major structural components in
wood, accounting for around 40–50 wt% of content depending
on wood species.[25] Cellulose is present in the form of fibrils
of high axial modulus and strength, embedded in a hydrated
matrix of hemicellulose and lignin. Combinations of modeling
and experimental work reveal the axial modulus and tensile
strength of cellulose crystals to be around 150 and 10 GPa,
respectively.[26,27] In wood, cellulose chains are assembled into
fibrils of 3–4 nm in diameter. The fibrils tend to form larger
scale aggregates in the cell wall. The secondary cell wall is the
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main part of cell wall with thickness in micrometers. It consists

of three major layers, but even those three layers have finer Yuanyuan Li received her
scale layers. The cell wall is organized to form hollow fibers Ph.D. degree in Nanjing
with the total cell wall thickness of a few micrometers, a length Forestry University (China)
of 1–3 mm, and a diameter of 20–50 µm.[23] These hollow fibers in 2014. During her Ph.D.,
are oriented preferably in the longitudinal direction, parallel to she worked as an exchange
the tree stem. In many species of trees, the fiber packing den- student at the Department
sity and fiber cell wall thickness vary during the year, resulting of Materials Science and
in annual growth rings at the millimeter scale. The fiber orien- Engineering, University of
tation leads to the anisotropic properties of wood in terms of Maryland (USA), focusing on
mechanical performance,[28] water transportation, thermal con- nanocellulose-based multi-
ductivity,[29] and optical properties.[30–32] functional composites and
The “matrix” in the native cell wall is a mixture of hemicellu- flexible electronics. Currently,
lose and lignin. Hemicellulose is an amorphous hetero-polysac- she is a postdoc at Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (KTH)
charide, which is highly hydrated in the cell wall and accounts Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden) working on bioma-
for around 20–40 wt% of wood.[33] It is associated with cellulose terials for functional structural materials.
and may serve to prevent cellulose agglomeration and physi-
cally link cellulose fibrils. Lignin is an aromatic component rich Elena Vasileva holds
in phenols and provides stiffness to cell walls even if there is no M.Sc. degree in Electrical
turgor pressure. It is mainly distributed in the secondary cell Engineering (2013) obtained
wall, but with high concentration in the middle lamella and cell within the M.Sc. double-
wall corners.[34,35] Figure 1b depicts the distribution of polysac- degree program from
charides and lignin in the cell wall. The First Electrotechnical
Porosity and pore size distribution are important param- University (LETI, Russia) and
eters that influence the liquid/gas transportation in wood,[36,37] Lappeenranta University of
thermal conductivity,[29] and optical and mechanical properties Technology (LUT, Finland). Her
of wood.[28] The complex porous structure combining micro-, research interests include laser
meso-, and macropores is a specific characteristic of wood.[38,39] physics, light polarization and
The wood porosity spans over a large range from about 20 to coherence, and novel optical
90 vol%, depending on the wood density. Lumens, pit openings, materials. She is a board member of IEEE Photonics Sweden
and sub-microscale voids in cell walls are included. Lumens are and chairs the Swedish chapter of Women in Engineering
of micrometer scale, and normally of cylinder shape, organ- society (WIE Sweden IEEE). Currently, she is working toward
ized preferably in longitudinal direction. Pit openings can be Ph.D. degree in Photonics at Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan
both meso- and macropores. The presence and organization (KTH) Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden).
of multiscale pores in wood serves to realize water/nutrients
transportation in wood, low thermal conductivity, and influence Lars Berglund studied
mechanical properties. Pores are scattering light due to solid/gas Materials Science and
interface boundaries, and thus hindering light transmittance. Engineering at Luleå University
of Technology (LTU), Luleå,
Sweden, and Polymer Science
and Engineering at University
3. Transparent Wood Fabrication of Massachusetts, Amherst,
Natural wood is not transparent in the visible spectral range due USA. He obtained his Ph.D.
to strong absorption and scattering of light. To make wood trans- from Linköping University
parent, both absorption and scattering need to be eliminated. in 1987. From 1991 to 2002,
The amount of light absorption is strongly related to the chem- he was a Professor at LTU, and
ical composition. Wood is brownish due to the presence of light- from 2002 a Professor of Wood and Wood Composites at
absorbing components such as lignin, chlorophyll, and tannins. the Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (KTH) Royal Institute of
Among these, lignin is responsible for around 80–95% of light Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. Since 2009 he has been
absorption in wood.[41] This light absorption can be drastically the Director of Wallenberg Wood Science Center at KTH.
reduced by chemical treatment of the wood: either removing
“all” of the lignin (by delignification)[3,12–14,18,42] or deactivating the
chromophores within lignin.[17] Fink treated wood with a 5 wt% wood in boiling solution containing NaOH and Na2SO3, fol-
aqueous solution of sodium hypochlorite for 1–2 days to remove lowed by hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) treatment.[44] The wood tem-
colored substances, including lignin.[12] Berglund and co- plate obtained shows a lignin content of <3 wt%. Yu et al. used
workers did delignification using sodium chlorite under 80 °C the same approach in their work.[15] With decreased lignin con-
for 6 h. The lignin content decreased from around 25 wt% to tent, the wood template shows increased transmittance and min-
less than 3 wt%.[3] This method has also been adapted by several imized light absorption in the visible spectral range (Figure 2a).
groups.[16,42,43] Hu and co-workers removed lignin by treating After chemical treatment, with main focus on delignification,

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Figure 1.  a) Schematic illustration of hierarchical wood structures from the meter scale of tree to the nanoscale of cellulose chain. Reproduced with per-
mission.[40] Copyright 2011, IOP Publishing Ltd. b) Lignin and polysaccharide map showing their distributions in the cell wall using scanning transmission
X-ray microscopy. Left is the lignin map. Middle is the polysaccharides map. Right image is the map of lignin divided by polysaccharides (image left divided
by image middle) with false color (warmer colors indicate more lignin). Reproduced with permission.[34] Copyright 2014, BioMed Central.

the decolorized, whitish wood (yet not transparent) has a well-
preserved morphological structure at microscale,[3,18] which is
anisotropic due to the fibrous wood structure.
Although the wood cell structure is not perfectly ordered,
rather semiordered, it determines optical properties of the
material, depending on the direction of light propagation. A
simple coordinate system should, as a minimum, refer to the
wood cell orientation, longitudinal or transverse. As is described
in Section 2, the wood consists of hollow fibers with cellular
space in the form of “lumen,” forming mesoporous struc-
tures. Strong light scattering occurs at the boundaries between
the air-filled cellular void channels and the solid nanocom-
posite matter of the cell walls (e.g., cellulose, residual lignin,
and hemicellulose) due to refractive index mismatch between

Figure 2.  a) Transmittance of delignified basswood (1 mm thick) with different residual lignin contents. Reproduced with permission.[14] Copyright
2016, Elsevier Ltd. Image of original balsa wood cross sections b) before and c) after delignification. Reproduced with permission.[3] Copyright 2016,
American Chemical Society.

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www.advancedsciencenews.com
Figure 3.  Scheme showing transparent wood preparation by a delignification approach. Scale bars in the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images
are 40 µm. Reproduced with permission.[3,17] Copyright 2016, American Chemical Society; Copyright 2017, Wiley-VCH.
these components (n ≈1.53 in average) and air (n = 1).[3] Micro-
scale and nanoscale voids appear in the cell walls after removal
of lignin. Figure 2b and Figure 2c show the cell wall structure
before and after delignification, respectively. The generated
pores lead to increased light scattering inside the wood cell wall.
To decrease light scattering from the wood structure, one can
infiltrate the wood template with polymers where the refractive
index is matched to the wood template, for example polymethyl
methacrylate (PMMA, n  ≈1.49), epoxy resin (n ≈1.5), polyvi-
nylpyrrolidone (PVP, n  ≈1.53), n-butyl methacrylate (n  ≈1.50),
polystyrene (n  ≈1.59), dibutyl phthalate (n  ≈1.52), iso-bornyl
methacrylate (n  ≈1.48–1.50), diallyl phthalate, and poly vinyl-
carbazole (n  ≈1.68).[3,12–14] If the mismatch between refractive
indices of wood and the infiltrated polymer is small, this can
reduce the scattering drastically. We generally refer to this com-
posite material, a wood template infiltrated with a suitable poly­
­mer, as “transparent wood.” Nevertheless, there is still residual
scattering due to interfaces, in particular debond gaps caused
by incompatibility between the wood cell wall and the polymer
as well as the polymer shrinkage during polymerization.[9,45]
Transparent wood was first made by Fink based on the idea of
removing light-absorbing components (mainly lignin) followed
by infiltration of a polymer with a refractive index matching the
wood substrate (Figure 3).[12] More studies based on the same
idea, using different treatment methods, have been developed
later on.[3,9,13–16,18,19,42,43] It should be noted that delignification
process typically removes around 30 wt% of wood tissue.[17]
This damages and weakens the wood structure so that han-
dling and fabrication of large substrates become challenging
and impractical. Li et al. suggested to remove only the chromo-
phoric structures in lignin, while bulk lignin is preserved.[17]
The idea has been realized by using alkaline H2O2 treatment of
Adv. Optical Mater. 2018, 6, 1800059 1800059  (4 of 14)
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wood. With the “lignin-retaining method,” up to 80 wt% of the
lignin was preserved, leading to better mechanical properties
compared with delignified templates.
The optical properties of transparent wood based on lignin-
retaining wood templates are comparable to transparent wood
based on delignified wood template. Despite the success in
transparent wood preparation and the high transmittance (over
80% at a thickness of 1 mm), transparent wood still demon-
strated lower transmittance than the neat polymer, and it
strongly decreases further with increased wood thickness.[3,13] Li
et al. proposed that the main reason is interface debond cracks
between the polymer and the wood cell wall.[45] Thus, surface
acetylation of delignified wood is carried out to increase the
interface compatibility between the wood cell wall and PMMA.
In this way, transparent wood (balsa) samples (transmittance
of 60%) with a thickness of 1 cm were successfully made.[45]
Despite the success in transparent wood fabrication, chal-
lenges still exist with respect to tunable optical performance
and scaled-up production. Effective prevention of polymer
shrinkage during polymerization is a remaining question.
The optical and mechanical stability is also a potential ques-
tion for industrial applications of the technology. Furthermore,
transparent wood with increased cellulose content is desirable.
These questions should be addressed in future studies.
4. Optical Properties
4.1. Measurement Techniques
Before discussing measurement techniques for optical prop-
erties, interaction of light with transparent wood requires
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www.advancedsciencenews.com
Figure 4.  Schematic sketch showing light propagation through transparent
wood within an input beam of incident intensity I: A—absorption, R—reflec-
tion, BS—back scattering, FS—forward scattering, B—ballistic photons, i.e.,
part of the beam mainly maintaining its original direction of propagation
without significant scattering. The surrounding medium is air, and all values
are given in percentage, whereas incident intensity is taken as 100%.
some attention. The processes are schematically illustrated in
Figure 4. As an optical beam travels through transparent wood,
it loses part of the energy and changes its structure due to sev-
eral factors: 1) back reflection at the front and back planes (R),
2) scattering inside the material (backward and forward scat-
tering, BS and FS in the schematics), and 3) absorption (A)
inside the material. All these processes depend on physical
parameters of the transparent wood. These include quality of
the sample facets, refractive-index mismatch between wood and
polymer, the presence of voids, anisotropic structure, to name
a few, which contribute to light scattering. Residual absorbents
from original wood and the introduced polymer are responsible
for light absorption.
Two quantities are of particular importance in characterizing
the optical properties of transparent wood: transmittance
(measure of energy transport losses, including absorption and
scattering) and haze (information/imaging content loss). Physi-
cally, the transmittance (T) is the total amount of light energy
transported through the sample into forward half-space, both
scattered (diffused) light and part of the beam going without
noticeable disturbance. Effectively, it means the energy of input
beam subtracted by the reflection, absorption, and scattering in
the backward half-space. In a simplified way, these values can
be expressed by the following relationships
T = B + FS = I − A − R − BS (1)
As for haze, phenomenologically it describes the relative
amount of forward scattered, or diffused, light (subtracted with
ballistic photons, ballistic photons is shown as B in Fig. 4),
that results in the decrease of image contrast seen through the
material. In this case, it can be defined as follows
Haze ≈ FS/T (2)
However, there is no strict formal definition, in which
divergence (solid) angle outgoing photons are still considered
as ballistic. There exists a recommendation document which
provides technical specifications for a particular measurement
method which we consider later in Section 4.2.1.
Adv. Optical Mater. 2018, 6, 1800059 1800059  (5 of 14)
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There are no reports on direct absorbance estimation for
transparent wood, since all measurements are done for trans-
mission, which, in turn, is affected by both absorption and
scattering. The absorption characteristics can be retrieved from
the analysis of reflectance and transmittance (on average 90%).
However, such measurements and data reduction require cau-
tion, since they strongly depend on surface quality.
The most common method to estimate haze and transmit-
tance is described in the ASTM D1003 standard[46] and uti-
lizes an integrating sphere and a spectrometer. However, this
method was mainly developed for materials like plastics or
frosted glasses with haze lower than 30%. Therefore, there may
be some pitfalls for direct implementation of this method for
transparent wood. The instruments commonly used for optical
measurements on transparent wood are either commercial
UV–vis spectroscopy with an integrating sphere or homemade
setups according to ASTM D1003 standard.[3,13,15] There is no
obvious difference between these two types of instruments for
determining the optical properties.
4.1.1. Transmittance Measurements
An integrating sphere is typically used to measure hemi-
spherical transmittance. Values differ from direct transmittance
data because the sphere collects a total cone of scattered light
consisting of ballistic and randomly scattered photons (FS + B
in Figure 4). Thus, the measured transmittance value is higher
than direct transmittance values. Certain parameters, such as
the setup geometry, sample thickness, light propagation direc-
tion with respect to the wood fiber orientation, and the size of
the beam in comparison to the integrating sphere port, will
influence the measured data and must be characterized in
order to analyze the optical property.
The semiordered structure of transparent wood causes light
to experience strong anisotropic scattering, as it propagates
in transparent wood. Therefore, the beam can diverge signifi-
cantly before entering the input port of the integrating sphere
(Figure 5). If the sample is thin (Figure 5a) and the beam size is
smaller than the input port diameter, all light passing through
the sample is collected by the sphere. However, if the beam size
is larger than or comparable to the input port diameter, part of
the beam (highlighted in Figure 5b) will be blocked by the inte-
grating sphere. Thus, the measured transmittance value will be
lower than the real value. But even if the incident beam size
is smaller than the port diameter, a sample of a certain thick-
ness might still lead to the losses of measured light (Figure 5c).
There may be strong beam scattering inside the medium, so
that the light reaching the sphere is reduced. All these exam-
ples can introduce measurement errors and lead to incorrect
values. Therefore, there is a need for common characteristics
of the measurement setups, in order to compare data from dif-
ferent samples of transparent wood.
In order to compare results for samples of different thick-
ness, a “transmittance coefficient” parameter should be intro-
duced. This parameter would show the transmittance value
per unit length. However, the applicability of this parameter
is a subject of discussion. It seems that the transmittance
coefficient could be applied distinctively for the cases when
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Figure 5.  Sketch of the setup for transparent wood transmittance and haze measurements: a) thin sample on top of input port with a beam size smaller
than the input port diameter; b) thin sample placed on top of input port with a beam size larger than or comparable to the input port diameter; c) thick
sample placed on top of input port with a beam size smaller than the input port diameter; and d) sample with thickness larger than the transport mean
free path (TMFP) so that no ballistic photons are observed.
the thickness of a sample does or does not exceed the trans-
port mean free path (TMFP) length.[47] TMFP is typically used
for the description of light propagation inside a scattering
medium.[48] Its value characterizes the length of propagation
a photon experiences inside the scattering material, before its
propagation direction becomes totally random. It means that
there are no ballistic photons in the beam after it propagates
a distance longer that TMFP (Figure 5d). TMFP may depend
on the wood type and orientation of the samples relative to the
incident beam.
4.1.2. Haze Measurements
An important material parameter, along with transmittance,
is the haze of transparent wood. In terms of practical utiliza-
tion, haze is useful to characterize transparency, mostly in the
imaging context, i.e., how clearly an ambient image can be
observed through the sample. In principle, haze measurements
are based on the same setup as shown in Figure 5. Briefly, it
can be described as follows:[46,49]
1) Measurements of light intensity without specimen and with
the white light standard placed (T1—reference transmittance).
2) Measurements of light intensity with sample located at the
input port of the sphere and white standard placed (T2—light
transmitted by sample).
3) Measurements of light intensity without the sample and a
light trap replacing the white standard (T3—light scattered by
instrument).
4) Measurements of light intensity with the sample and the
light trap (T4—light scattered by instrument and specimen).
Then the haze value can be calculated as
Td  T4 T3 
Haze = =  −  × 100% (3)
Tt  T2 T1 
where Tt is total transmittance and Td is transmittance of dif-
fused light. In fact, T3/T1 is the error caused by the experi-
mental setup.
By definition, haze is the percentage of transmitted light
that is scattered with a direction deviating more than a speci-
fied angle (2.5°) from the direction of an incident beam.[46] To
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detect nondeviating (ballistic) photons, a “bucket”-type detector
with a small numerical aperture is required, in order to clearly
distinguish those from scattered photons. Interpretation of the
results also requires certain care. For the haze measurements,
the procedure described by the standard is mainly applicable
for materials with haze values lower than 30%. It does not
account for material anisotropy and a possible dependence
on the TMFP. For example, in the case depicted in Figure 5d,
where the thickness of the sample is larger than TMFP, dif-
fused transmittance of light will not be measured correctly.
Strong inhomogeneous and anisotropic scattering make
the characterization of the transmittance and haze of trans-
parent wood significantly different from many other trans-
parent scattering materials, which are homogeneous or have
purely random structures. Most results on transparent (semi-
transparent) materials deal with homogeneous and isotropic
media. However, characterization of unusual transparent mate-
rials, such as wood, requires adaptation of classical investiga-
tion methods. The description of semiordered wood structures
cannot be simplified by averaging or by the use of symmetry
properties. They represent the most “complex” case in between
highest and lowest entropies of completely disordered and
ordered patterns.[50] During measurements of optical proper-
ties, the mentioned precautions with respect to the ordering of
the wood structure are often not taken into account. In addition,
when light propagates perpendicular to the axial wood fiber
direction, the scattering introduces a nonsymmetric intensity
distribution in two perpendicular planes.[13] One consequence
is that the measured values of haze will be affected. This leads
to additional uncertainties in the interpretation of data since the
intensity distribution of a beam entering the sphere is assumed
to be uniform.[49] The light transmittance should be differen-
tiated for two orthogonal planes relative to the fiber direction
(T⊥ and T||) in order to make the haze definition more rigorous.
In the case of nonuniform intensity distribution, the measured
values of T3 and T4 do not take into account this difference,
rather describe “an averaged” spatial value, whereas the haze in
two perpendicular planes is different.
Besides anisotropy, the material thickness and TMFP factor
are essentially critical parameters for measurement of trans-
parent wood haze. To implement the classical approach of
haze measurements, the sample thickness should not exceed
TMFP, as discussed before. Otherwise, the light direction will
be randomized and measured values of T3 and T4 would not
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bear the original meaning, and depend on the aperture of the
detector (Figure 5). With formal treatment in its imaging con-
text, the haze would attain an infinitely large value, since there
is no directly transmitted light (ballistic photons) reaching the
detector plane (Figure 5d).
4.2. Experimental Findings
In this section, recent results on transmittance and haze meas-
urements are reviewed for this unique material. In general, the
transmittance of the transparent wood is high in the visible and
near-IR regions. The reason is the very limited absorption of
radiation by residual light-absorbing components in the struc-
ture. The value of transmittance at other wavelengths is lim-
ited by polymer absorption either by molecular vibrations in
the IR region or electronic states in UV.[51] Besides the amount
of residual lignin[14] causing absorption, transmittance is also
dependent on factors such as wood type,[17] cellulose volume
fraction,[3] cellulose fibers orientation,[13,18] and thickness of the
sample.[3,45]
Transparent wood exhibits high haze due to internal
light scattering from the refractive-index mismatch between
wood template and infiltrated polymer, and due to the wood/
polymer interface debond gaps inside the material. Typically,
stronger scattering implies lower transmittance. While this
is true for some cases of transparent wood, there are cases
when a rather unique combination of high, up to 90%, trans-
mittance and high (up to 90%) haze can be realized.[3,13,14,45]
This makes transparent wood a great candidate as a structural
“light diffuse” layer for solar cells, lighting systems, and build-
ings (same function as frosted glass). At short distances from
objects, the transparency of relatively thin transparent wood
samples is comparable with glass, plastics, and cellulose-based
nanopaper.[52–54] Additionally, in comparison to many other
transparent/translucent materials, transparent wood reveals
strong anisotropic optical behavior, which will be discussed in
Section 4.3 in more details.
4.2.1. Transmittance
As mentioned in Section 3, optical properties of transparent
wood are determined by the inherent cellular structure of the
material. Variation of the diameters, lengths, and cell wall
thicknesses of vessels and fibers results in different material
densities and porosities, which also influences transmittance
spectra. As was discussed earlier, the cell walls are mesoporous
after delignification. Thus, scattering also takes place inside the
cell wall, in addition to at the cell wall interfaces with the infil-
trated polymer. The increasing number of total refractive-index
variations at interfaces enhances scattering in the structure.
Figure 6a illustrates the dependence of the transmittance
on wood species. Optical images of the transparent wood

Figure 6.  a) Transmittance and b) photo of transparent wood (1.5 mm thick) made from balsa (density = 0.16 × 103 kg m−3), pine (density = 0.51 ×
103 kg m−3), birch (density = 0.65 × 103 kg m−3), and ash (density = 0.68 × 103 kg m−3). Reproduced with permission.[17] Copyright 2017, Wiley-VCH.
c) Dependence of transparent balsa wood transmittance (1.2 mm thick) on cellulose volume fraction. Reproduced with permission.[3] Copyright 2016,
American Chemical Society. d) Dependence of transparent wood transmittance on the sample thickness. Transparent wood samples are made from
balsa,[3] beech,[42] and basswood,[13] respectively. ⊥ means light propagates perpendicular to longitudinal direction, and // means light propagates
parallel to longitudinal direction. Transmittance values (c,d) are shown for 550 nm.

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Figure 7.  a) Dependence of haze on sample thickness. Transparent wood is made from balsa,[3] beech,[42] and basswood,[13] respectively. ⊥ means light
propagates perpendicular to longitudinal direction, and // means light propagates parallel to longitudinal direction. b) Haze spectra of transparent
wood (1.5 mm thick) made from balsa (density = 0.16 × 103 kg m−3), pine (density = 0.51 × 103 kg m−3), birch (density = 0.65 × 103 kg m−3), and ash
(density = 0.68 × 103 kg m−3). c) Dependence of transparent balsa wood haze (1.2 mm thick) on cellulose volume fraction. Reproduced with permis-
sion.[3] Copyright 2016, American Chemical Society. Haze values (a,c) are shown for 550 nm.

made from ash, balsa, pine, and birch are shown in Figure 6b.
The density of ash is the highest (0.68 × 103 kg m−3), while the
transmittance is the lowest (≈58% at 1.5 mm sample thickness).
As a comparison, the transmittance of transparent wood made
from low-density balsa is 85% for the same thickness (density
of balsa is 0.16 × 103 kg m−3). Wood density and transmittance
are correlated, perhaps due to scattering inside the cell wall.
This dependency is also observed in Figure 6c, where the trans-
mittance is modified by changing the cellulose volume fraction
(CVF). The samples made from the same wood species but
with different volume fraction can be obtained by compression
of delignified wood templates before polymer impregnation.[3]
Thus, the through-thickness density of interfaces grows with
CVF (5–65%) while the transmittance is decreased from 85%
to 35%.[3] Similar tendency is observed as the wood thickness is
increased when light propagates perpendicular to the longitu-
dinal direction (Figure 6d). It should be pointed out that when
light propagates along the longitudinal direction, the transmit-
tance is almost independent from sample thickness (Figure 6d,
basswood) due to waveguiding effects (Section 4.3). This mode
of orientation is less favorable from a structural mechanics
point of view.
4.2.2. Haze
The haze value depends on the microstructure of wood.[13,14]
Some wood fibers and channels contain microcurvatures with
bumps, microstripes, and microcavities that scatter light[14]
throughout the whole sample thickness.[13] Literature data for the
haze dependences are sometimes contradictory. Some results
demonstrate that the thickness of the sample has almost no effect
on the measured haze value (Figure 7a, balsa and basswood).[3,13]
Other data show strong dependence of haze on wood thickness
(Figure 7a, beech wood).[42] This is apparently related to the
measurement technique, and how it accounts for TMFP related
to material thickness. For thin samples (thickness < TMFP), the
ratio of ballistic and scattered photons would depend on material
thickness. Thus, it is reasonable to introduce a thickness-
dependent parameter for the haze measurements, for example,
the slope of the curve in Figure 7a in units [mm−1]. Saturation of
haze values in Figure 7a for thicker samples probably reflects a
transition to the photon transport regime above TMFP.
One would expect to see a dependence of haze values on the
density of the structure, which should affect scattering proper-
ties of the material. Surprisingly, reported haze values are only
slightly affected by the density of the material (different wood
species)[17] (Figure 7b) or CVF (different degree of compres-
sion)[3] (Figure 7c). Such a comparison should be carried out
at material thicknesses below TMFP, which varies between dif-
ferent wood species.
4.3. Anisotropic Scattering and Waveguiding Effect in
Transparent Wood
Based on the anisotropic fiber-based and cellular wood struc-
ture, light propagation through this material is expected to
reveal strongly anisotropic properties.[13,18] If light travels par-
allel to the longitudinal and tubular wood cell direction, the
poly­mer-filled pores can be considered as multimode wave-
guides with relatively high losses.[18] Figure 8a illustrates that
light is guided along the wood fibers independent of the inci-
dent beam angle.[18] The guidance effect of wood fibers was also
demonstrated in ref. [9], where the luminescence of quantum
dots (QDs) inside the transparent wood template is excited by
external radiation from the sample top. Light was collected
from two orthogonal directions of the sample. The intensity
was higher for luminescence collected from the sample edge
perpendicular to the wood fibers’ direction, where light propa-
gation along the fibers is promoted (Figure 8b).
Obviously, the waveguiding property also results in different
material transmittance values, depending on the orientation of
an incident beam with respect to wood fiber direction. For the
same material thickness, transmittance is higher for light prop-
agating along the fibers.[13] Moreover, due to light confinement
by the fibers and the semiordered structure (Figure 1a), the scat-
tering properties are also anisotropic (Figure 8c,d). Depending
on the relative orientation of the material direction and the
incident light, the wood fibers can guide light along the axial
direction or introduce strong anisotropic scattering. Therefore,
the haze value, analogous to transmittance, depends on fiber
orientation. Zhu et al. reported that, with the same thickness,
transparent wood haze is higher when light propagates along
the longitudinal fiber direction (≈97%) compared with light
propagating perpendicular to longitudinal direction (≈90%).[13]

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Figure 8.  Illustration of anisotropic scattering and waveguiding effects in transparent wood. a) Photo shows green light illuminating the transparent
wood surface at different angles (0°, 45°, and 70°). Light propagates mostly along the wood fibers (basswood, 0.5 mm). Reproduced with permis-
sion.[18] Copyright 2016, Wiley-VCH. b) Photoluminescence of QD-filled transparent wood, collected as a function of excitation spot distance from
the sample edge: parallel and perpendicular to the fiber direction (red and black), photoluminescence of QDs in glass collected as a reference (blue).
Reproduced with permission.[9] Copyright 2017, Wiley-VCH. c) The transmittance measurement setup (top), photo image of the scattered light spot
(middle), and the relative intensity distributions in the x- and y-directions (bottom) for R-wood.[13] d) The transmittance measurement setup (top),
photo image of the scattered light spot (middle), and the relative intensity distributions in the x- and y-directions (bottom) for L-wood.[13] In panels
(c) and (d), for R-wood, light propagates along the wood fiber cells, while for L-wood, light propagates perpendicular to the wood fibers. Reproduced
with permission.[13] Copyright 2016, Wiley-VCH.

5. Mechanical Properties of Transparent Wood
Mechanical properties of transparent wood are expected to be
improved compared with neat polymers (PMMA). Properties
are determined by combined contributions from the wood tem-
plate, the infiltrated polymer phase, and are also influenced by
interfacial bond properties between the wood template and the
infiltrated polymer.
As discussed in Section 2, the wood mechanical properties
are dominated by the cellulose content,[22] and the intrinsic geo-
metric orientation of the wood fiber cell structure. Cellulose
crystals/cellulose nanofibers are preferably oriented in the
longitudinal direction of the tubular wood cells, further contri­
buting to mechanical anisotropy. In addition, wood properties
also depend on relative density and morphological details of the
wood structure.[55] Properties of transparent wood are strongly
dependent on wood properties. One aspect is the mechanical
anisotropy (Figure 9a,b). Zhu et al. reported that mechanical
properties of transparent wood in the longitudinal direction
(E  = 2.37 GPa and σ  = 45.38 MPa) are about twice as high as
those perpendicular to the longitudinal direction (E = 1.22 GPa
and σ = 23.38 MPa).[13] One may note that this means that the

Figure 9.  Stress–strain curves for the native wood and transparent wood in the a) longitudinal direction and b) transverse direction. Reproduced with
permission.[13] Copyright 2016, Wiley-VCH. c) Stress–strain curves of transparent wood with wood volume fractions of 19% (TW-19) and 5% (TW-5),
delignified wood (DLW) and PMMA. d) SEM image of transparent wood showing the nanofibrous nature of the cell wall region and signs of favorable
interfacial bonding at the PMMA/wood interface. Reproduced with permission.[3] Copyright 2016, American Chemical Society.

Adv. Optical Mater. 2018, 6, 1800059 1800059  (9 of 14) © 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
www.advancedsciencenews.com
anisotropy ratio of longitudinal to transverse properties is actu-
ally decreased for transparent wood, as expected. Weak prop-
erties in the transverse direction of wood (radial or tangential)
are caused by cell wall–bending effects, and this is expected to
be suppressed by the presence of polymer in the lumen space.
Another aspect is the dependence of mechanical properties on
the volume fraction of wood. Li et al. reported that the tensile
properties of transparent wood increase with increased wood/
cellulose volume fraction.[3] The modulus was increased from
≈2 GPa to ≈4 GPa as the volume fraction increase from 5% to
19%. With the same PMMA polymer, the mechanical proper-
ties of transparent wood will change when wood templates
from different wood species are used. Transparent wood from
birch shows increased strength (σ  = 140 MPa) compared with
balsa (σ  = 100.7 ± 8.7 MPa) in bending tests, again reflecting
differences in wood/cellulose content.[17,56] Transparent wood
samples based on balsa, poplar, and beech also show substantial
differences in strength.[3,15,16] A systematic study is required to
sort out the mechanisms for this. A simple rule of the mixtures’
approach is expected to predict longitudinal transparent wood
modulus, from knowledge of wood and PMMA properties and
relative volume fractions, but there are several complications.
For instance, cell wall properties will differ between wood spe-
cies and even between wood samples from the same tree.
Synergies between wood template and polymer properties
are observed for transparent wood (Figure 9c).[3,15] The load-
bearing components in transparent wood are the cell wall and
the infiltrated polymer. Favorable interaction (bonding) between
wood cellulose nanofibers and PMMA is helpful (Figure 9d).
Li et al.[3] reported that the tensile properties of transparent
wood (Vf = 19%, E = 3.6 GPa, and σ = 90 MPa) are higher than
for both the delignified wood template (E  = 0.22 GPa and σ  =
3 MPa) and for PMMA (E = 1.8 GPa and σ = 44 MPa). Yu et al.
reported improved tensile strength for transparent wood com-
pared with native wood and the neat polymer.[15] Lang et al.
reported high strength in bending tests.[56] One should note
that native wood is not the template for transparent wood, since
there is a chemical pretreatment step. Native wood has a more
favorable cell wall structure and much better properties than
delignified wood templates used for transparent wood.
One advantage of transparent wood over glass for structural
applications is that the ductility and work to fracture are higher.
Transparent wood does not shatter in an unfavorable manner.
The high work to fracture is mainly caused by the intrinsic prop-
erties of the infiltrated polymer, the complex hierarchical wood
structure, and composite material effects in the form of new
toughening mechanisms. Li et al. performed impact tests on
transparent wood and reported favorable impact toughness.[18]
The three-point bending test on transparent wood showed one-
order of magnitude higher work to fracture of transparent wood
(1.2 MJ m−3) compared with glass (0.1 MJ m−3).[17] This indi-
cates the potential of transparent wood in applications where
impact properties are important.
6. Transparent Wood Functionalization
With annual rings, highly ordered porous cells at the scale of
10  µm and the cell wall organization in the form of stacked,
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oriented nanocomposite layers, wood is a sophisticated hier-
archical material. It is of great interest as a hierarchically struc-
tured large-scale template for multifunctional modification. The
main modification strategies include modification of the cell
wall, cell wall/lumen interface modification, and lumen filling
(Figure 10a).[8] Modification can be performed by chemical reac-
tions of small molecules,[5,57] physical adsorption,[58,59] physical
filling of monomer liquids,[60] thermal treatment,[61,62] or complex
combinations. Successful wood modification examples include
preparation of magnetic wood,[63,64] fire retardant wood,[65] conduc-
tive wood,[4,66,67] and stimuli-responsive wood.[6] These technolo-
gies can potentially be used for multifunctional transparent wood.
The main approach for transparent wood modification is to
fill lumen pore space with monomer of prepolymer liquids,
followed by polymerization.[9,15,16,43] Li et al. prepared lumi-
nescent transparent wood by including silicon or CdSe QDs in
liquid MMA monomer/oligomer mixtures, and impregnating
porous wood templates followed by polymerization.[9] Photolu-
minescence mapping revealed uniformly distributed emission
centers. The approach is presented in Figure 10b. With similar
strategy, magnetic transparent wood (Fe3O4 nanoparticles[16]),
luminescent magnetic wood (γ-Fe2O3@YVO4:Eu3+ nanoparti-
cles[43]), and heat-shielding transparent wood (CsxWO3 nano-
particles[15]) have later been reported.
Another approach is to modify/dope the wood template with
functional molecules, followed by monomer impregnation and
polymerization. Vasileva et al. prepared luminescent wood by
impregnation of an organic dye (Rh6G) solution, followed by
MMA monomer/oligomer impregnation and polymerization
(Figure 10c, left).[19] The optical transmittance is then modified by
the absorption properties of the dye. A microscopic image of the
specimen and the optical transmission curve confirm the pres-
ence of the dye (Figure 10c, middle). The unique feature of the
dyed TW-Rh6G wood material is that its emission spectrum has a
narrow peak width, measured as the full width at half maximum
(FWHM), of less than 10 nm (Figure 10c, right), compared with
the typical 50 nm width Rh6G photoluminescence spectrum.[68]
Recently, chemical modification of the wood template before
polymer infiltration was demonstrated to improve transparency
of the wood (Figure 10d, left).[45] With the help of acetylation,
the compatibility between the wood template and the infiltrated
polymer is improved, resulting in higher transmittance and
lower haze (Figure 10d, middle and right). With 1.5 mm thick
transparent balsa, the transmittance is increased from 83 ± 2%
to 92 ± 1%. Haze is decreased from 70% to 50%. More apparent
improvements are obtained with thicker samples and higher
density wood species. This suggests that surface modification is
way to control the optical properties.
An important aspect is the mechanical performance effect
from addition of functional particles. Yu et al. reported that
incorporation of functionalized nanoparticles (CsxWO3) in
transparent wood resulted in negligible strength and modulus
effects. The strength was 60.1 MPa for transparent wood and
59.8 MPa for CsxWO3 /transparent wood. The modulus was
2.67 GPa for transparent wood and 2.72 GPa for CsxWO3 /
transparent wood).[15] Gan et al. observed lowered strength
(from 40.6 to 28.7 MPa) and modulus (from 0.79 to 0.57 GPa)
when magnetic particles (Fe3O4) were added and the content
increased from 0.1 to 0.5 wt%.[16] The strength change is related
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Figure 10.  Transparent wood modification: a) scheme showing the various types of wood modification. Reproduced with permission.[8] Copyright 2015,
Institute of Materials. b) Sketch of transparent wood modification procedure using quantum dots (QD). Reproduced with permission.[9] Copyright 2017,
Wiley-VCH. c) Microscopic image (left) of illuminated transparent wood with the wood template doped with dye molecules (Rh6G), transmittance
spectrum (middle), and emission spectrum (right) of transparent wood with the wood template doped by dye molecules (TW-Rh6G). Reproduced
with permission.[19] Copyright 2017, Wiley-VCH. d) Photo of transparent wood (left): without (left in the photo) and with (right in the photo) surface
acetylation of wood template; transmittance (middle) and haze (right) spectra of transparent wood without and with surface acetylation of the wood
template. Reproduced with permission.[45] Copyright 2017, The Royal Society of Chemistry.

to embrittlement effects from the particles, whereas the mod-
ulus effect is more difficult to understand.
In general, the added content of nanoparticles or molecular
dye is low (less than 1 wt%). Higher content often leads to
strong aggregation of nanoparticles and lowered strength prop-
erties. In addition, effects from refractive-index mismatch and
intrinsic light absorption characteristics may somewhat com-
promise optical properties. It is therefore a challenge to increase
the content of active components, and yet preserve optical and
mechanical properties. For improved preparation routes, it is
also essential to characterize the distribution of nanoparticles/
molecules in the material since detailed knowledge is lacking.
7. Applications of Transparent Wood
Transparent wood exhibits a combination of high optical
transmittance and haze, outstanding toughness, low thermal
conductivity, low density, anisotropic optical and mechanical
performance, etc.[3,13,17,18] Exploiting and utilizing these proper-
ties in practical applications is important for the development
of transparent wood research.
Early efforts on transparent wood were not motivated by
engineering considerations. It was first designed to facilitate
wood anatomy studies.[12] The interior wood structure becomes
visible, and 3D reconstruction of the structure is possible.
Similar concepts have been used for deep imaging of plant and
animal tissue.[69–71]
Recently, the mechanical performance of transparent wood
was studied.[3] Since the material combines structural perfor-
mance with functional (optical) properties (high transmittance
and haze), this rare combination was emphasized. Most func-
tional materials do not have load-bearing properties or are suit-
able for large-scale structures. Transparent building structure is
one demonstration, where light transmittance can be designed
so that artificial light can be partially replaced by sunlight. High
haze can be used to ensure more uniform and soft nature of
the transmitted light so that indoor privacy is preserved. Trans-
parent wood roofs can be designed for some buildings, and
provide more uniform and comfortable illumination compared
with conventional glass (Figure 11a).[17,18] In addition, building
panels from transparent wood show lower thermal conduc-
tivity, better impact strength, and lower density compared with
glass.[18] Functionalized transparent wood provides even more
opportunities for smart buildings. By inclusion of quantum
dots, transparent wood[9,43] attains diffused luminescence prop-
erties (Figure 11b). This may be used in planar light sources,
luminescent building elements, or design furniture.[9]
Yu et al.[15] demonstrated transparent wood for heat-shielding
buildings/windows by the use of NIR absorbing CsxWO3 nanopar-
ticles. Strong absorption of light was observed at wavelengths from
780 to 2500 nm. The CsxWO3/transparent wood window resulted
in lower temperature increase under continuous solar radiation,
compared with the glass window reference (Figure 11c). Mag-
netic nanoparticles have also been incorporated into transparent
wood[16,43] to provide electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding.

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Figure 11.  Transparent wood applications: a) a schematic of transparent wood roof for comfortable lighting conditions. Reproduced with permission.[18]
Copyright 2016, Wiley-VCH. b) A piece of Si QDs’ transparent wood showing diffused luminescence. Reproduced with permission.[9] Copyright 2017,
Wiley-VCH. c) Temperature changes after 10 min simulated solar radiation of model houses with CsxWO3/transparent wood (left) and glass (right) as
windows. The temperature readings are shown below the image. Reproduced with permission.[15] Copyright 2017, Royal Society of Chemistry. d) Current
density versus voltage characteristics for both bare GaAs cell (black) and the GaAs cell with light management wood coating (red). Reproduced with
permission.[14] Copyright 2016, Elsevier Ltd. e) Stepwise spectral change of the magenta to clear transparent wood ECD upon oxidation from −0.5 to
0.8 V and photographs of the device in its colorless (0.8 V) and colored (−0.5 V) states. Reproduced with permission.[56] Copyright 2018, Wiley-VCH.
f) Optical tunable smart wood window demonstration by lamination of PDLC film on transparent wood substrate. The optical property is tuned by
switching on/off electrical power. Reproduced with permission.[45] Copyright 2017, The Royal Society of Chemistry.

Another direction for transparent wood applications is as
a structural material for photovoltaic devices such as solar
cells and electrochromic devices.[14,45,56] Due to the high haze,
transparent wood can be designed as a light diffuse layer.
High haze means large scattering angles, which increase the
length of the light path inside solar cells, so that efficiency is
improved.[72,73] Based on this idea, Zhu et al. showed improved
solar cell efficiency by positioning transparent wood on top of
solar cells (Figure 11d).[14] Within the transparent wood sub-
strate line, Lang et al. built conjugated polymer-based electro-
chromic devices (ECD) with transparent wood as the substrate
(Figure 11e).[56] The devices exhibit a vibrant magenta-to-clear
color change (∆E*  = 43, ∆%T  = 38%) with a high coloration
efficiency (590 cm2 C−1) and low driving voltage (0.8 V). This
concept will contribute to smart windows, which save energy.
Incident irradiation into a building is controlled through
modulation of transmitted light with the help of ECD. Li et al.
reported another type of switch on-demand smart window by
attaching polymer-dispersed liquid crystals (PDLC) film on top
of transparent wood substrates (Figure 11f).[45] Optical device
properties were tuned by changing the alignment of the liquid
crystals through application of an electric field. Without power
supply, the device showed high haze and privacy protection.
When power was applied, the device was transparent. This par-
ticular transparent wood substrate is modified to show high
transmittance but low haze.
Transparent wood itself does not show intrinsic optical gain.
The addition of active optical media is needed to facilitate pho-
tonic applications. It was demonstrated that transparent wood
doped with dye molecules can produce laser action under cer-
tain pumping conditions.[19] The active medium of the laser is
Rh6G molecules, and the optical feedback is realized since the
aligned, hollow wood fibers in the structure are functioning as
small resonators. The emission line width is several nanome-
ters since the effect is of collective nature and a consequence of
variations in the wood structure. The fine structure of the lasing
modes is similar to the lasing action of dye molecules in other
quasi-random media, for instance, based on sand grains.[74]
8. Conclusions and Outlook
Transparent wood is an interesting topic in the emerging field
of wood nanotechnology, both in academic and in industrial
context. Noticeable progress has been achieved, including prep-
aration of transparent wood with improved mechanical prop-
erties, improvement in making larger and thicker transparent
wood structures, realization of transparent wood functionaliza-
tion, and the demonstration of applications in smart buildings
and photovoltaic devices. More work is required to understand
the light–wood interaction, to tune the optical and mechanical
properties, improve the “green” aspect, and to exploit advanced
transparent wood applications. Related questions include: what
is the real refractive index of wood? What are the TMFP values
for different wood species? What are the correct values for trans-
mittance and haze per unit length? Can scattering be predicted
from complexity and configurational entropy considerations?
Can we substantially increase the wood content in transparent
wood? How can the chemical diffusion gradients inside thick
and large wood specimens be minimized during bleaching and
impregnation processes? How can the content of functional
particles be increased for the purpose of transparent wood

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www.advancedsciencenews.com
functionalization? In order to answer these questions, a system-
atic development of wood nanotechnologies is needed, with asso-
ciated efforts in nanoscience and characterization techniques.
Acknowledgements
Y.Y.L. and E.V. contributed equally to this work. The authors acknowledge
funding from the European Research Council Advanced Grant project
No 742733, Wood NanoTech, and Swedish Research Council (VR)
# 621-2012-4421. Min Yan from School of Engineering Science, Kungliga
Tekniska Högskolan (KTH) Royal Institute of Technology, is acknowledged
for the discussion and help during the preparation of this work.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Keywords
biocomposites, optical property measurement, photonic devices, smart
buildings, transparent wood, wood modification
Received: January 16, 2018
Revised: March 13, 2018
Published online: May 11, 2018
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