Partial deconstruction and functional reassembly of wood cell walls for ambient-pressure fabrication of ultralight anisotropic nanowood-derived metamaterials

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Abstract

The intrinsic anisotropic and hierarchical architecture of wood provides a promising platform for lightweight bio-based metamaterials; however, it remains challenging to simultaneously preserve long-range structural orientation, enable nanoscale regulation, and adopt a low-energy, scalable processing route. Here, we report an ultralight and mechanically robust anisotropic nanowood-derived metamaterial fabricated from natural balsa wood through a “partial deconstruction and functional reassembly” strategy. Specifically, controlled delignification and alkaline activation partially open the wood cell wall and reactivate the collapsed fibrillar network, while poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) infiltration followed by ambient-pressure air drying reconstructs the cell-wall skeleton through hydrogen-bond-mediated interfibril bridging without disrupting the oriented wood framework. The resulting material exhibits an ultralow bulk density of 30–40 kg·m⁻³ , a compressive strength of 4.97 MPa, and the ability to support loads exceeding 1000 times its own weight, together with pronounced mechanical anisotropy and good cyclic stability. These results demonstrate that ambient-pressure air drying, when combined with controlled cell-wall reconstruction, can effectively alleviate the common trade-off between ultralight architecture and mechanical integrity in wood-derived porous materials. This work therefore provides a practical bio-based strategy for engineering architected nanowood-derived metamaterials with potential applications in lightweight structural components and anisotropic thermal-management materials.

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