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.

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.

Properties

Superwood is 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).

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

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.

References

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