Petrified wood: quick and easy.Materials scientists have turned wood into stone, mimicking in a single workweek a natural petrification pet·ri·fac·tion also pet·ri·fi·ca·tion n. 1. A process of fossilization in which dissolved minerals replace organic matter. 2. The state of being stunned or paralyzed with fear. process that takes millions of years. In the January Advanced Materials, Yongsoon Shin and his colleagues at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is one of nine United States Department of Energy (DOE) multiprogram national laboratories. The laboratory PNNL is located in Richland, Washington, and operates a marine research facility in Sequim, Washington. in Richland, Wash., share their recipe. They first soak blocks of pine and poplar in an acid bath to remove lignin lignin (lĭg`nĭn), a highly polymerized and complex chemical compound especially common in woody plants. The cellulose walls of the wood become impregnated with lignin, a process called lignification, which greatly increases the strength and , a gluelike substance in the wood, and then move them into a solution containing mineral-forming silica. Next, the team heats the dried, silica-infused wood to 1,400[degrees]C in an argon-filled furnace. The process binds silica to the carbon in wood's cellulose. The tough, heat-resistant, highly porous silicon carbide ceramic might soak up radioactive waste or remove carbon dioxide carbon dioxide, chemical compound, CO2, a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas that is about one and one-half times as dense as air under ordinary conditions of temperature and pressure. from smokestacks, says Shin. |
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