An Ultrastrong and Ultraflexible Wood Veneer via Fiber Interaction Enhancement and Defect Reduction

Natural wood veneer is a flexible and sustainable material with significant potential for various applications. However, there are more defects in wood veneer, leading to lower strength, and the strengthening strategies currently used for wood blocks do not work well when applied to wood veneer. In this study, we processed the fragile wood veneer into an ultrastrong and ultraflexible material with a tensile strength of 578.4 MPa and preserved its beautiful wood texture. This enhancement is achieved by reducing defects within the veneer through adding cellulose molecules between the wood cell fibers. The resulting wood veneer is exceedingly flexible compared to natural wood, with a bending radius as small as 0.2 mm, while retaining its strength. This flexibility allows the veneer to be wrapped around other materials and improves the mechanical properties. The wood veneer exhibits much lower signal attenuation compared to carbon fiber fabric composites due to its electromagnetic transparency. Moreover, the environmental impact of producing each kilogram of this veneer is less than that of the carbon fiber material. These ultrastrong, ultraflexible, and sustainable properties of the wood veneer can enrich the family of lightweight, high-strength materials and enable a wide range of applications.