Superwood

Superwood is a strong building material we can make on Mars.

Wood is made up of 40 to 50% of Cellulose fibers, with hemicellulose (20 to 30%) and lignen (15 to 30%) holding it together, with 1 to 5% other stuff.

By boiling the wood in a solution of Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) and Sodium Sulphite (Na₂SO₃) most of the hemicellulose and Lignen is removed leaving the Cellulose fibers. The cellulose is then compressed and heated. The Cellulose fibres collapse, and chemically bind together.

Properties

This forms a hard, steel like substance with the following properties:

• 10 times more resistant to tearing than wood.
• 50 times more resistant to compression than wood.
• 20 times more stiff than wood.
• Twice as strong a steel.
• 5 time lighter than steel.
• half the price to manufacture than steel.
• can be molded, like liquid metals, but at far lower temperatures.
• better at absorbing neutron radiation than steel.
• it is a thermal insulator (tho not as good as natural wood).

Uses

It can be used anywhere steel can be used. Variations of it can also:

• Make ultra strong fibers.
• Wood honey comb structural material.
• Insulating nano-wood.
• Radiative cooling wood.
• Wood aerogel.
• Transparent Wood. (Martian windows might be easier to build out of this than glass.)
• Translucent wood.
• Clear nano-paper.

It has a class A fire-rating. (Like stone, ceramic, or brick.) When exposed to fire, it gains surface char but does not burn.

If martian farms grew hemp, hemp can have from 53 to 90% cellulose, so this would be an ideal raw material for this industrial process.

References

• https://www.nature.com/articles/nature25476
• https://newatlas.com/materials/superwood-stronger-steel-inventwood/