Circular, scalable, multifunctional wood aerogel 

Aerogels are attractive in various applications ranging from aerospace to energy storage due to low density and high specific surface area. Mainstream strategy to obtain lignocellulosic aerogels is bottom-up approach, disintegrating wood into nano building blocks (e.g. nanocellulose) followed by reassembling into aerogels. The complex and/or energy intensive processing are challenges. Top-down approach is an alternative by directly using wood while the hierarchical structure is largely preserved, and in-situ modified. This project is about fabrication and application of a novel type of lignocellulosic aerogels, wood aerogels, a highly nano porous structure with cellulosic nanofibril network filling the empty lumen space.