Important Innovations

Inexpensive Alternative to Glass Windows and Solar Panels Source:  American Chemical Society KTH Transparent Wood New Innovation from Sweden's KTH This is important innovation in materials science.  Researchers at Sweden's KTH Royal Institute of Technology have developed a transparent, synthetic wood that can store and release heat.  The material is transparent.  It's an inexpensive alternative to glass used in windows and solar panels. Their innovation was just presented at the American Chemical Society meeting in Orlando, FL. Building on KTH Research This is an important iteration on a research theme and results achieved by KTH.  They previously created a transparent wood by cutting the lignin from the cell walls of balsa wood and combined that with plexiglass. New Transparent Wood They've now added the phase change polymer polyethylene glycol (PEG) to the wood fiber and plexiglass mixture.  The result:  material that absorbs heat and stores energy that