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Functionalized Wood: A Green Nanoengineering Platform for Sustainable Technologies

  • 0Institute of Mechanical and Electric Engineering, Jiangsu Province Key Laboratory of Embodied Intelligence Robotics Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215123, People's Republic of China.
Nano-Micro Letters +

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January 9, 2026

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January 9, 2026

View abstract on PubMed

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Wood nanotechnology transforms natural wood into advanced nanomaterials for green technologies. Nanoengineered wood offers sustainable solutions for energy storage, water treatment, and energy conversion, addressing carbon imbalance challenges.

Area Of Science

  • Materials Science
  • Nanotechnology
  • Green Chemistry

Background

  • Wood is an underexplored material with rich physicochemical complexity.
  • It is emerging as a renewable platform for green nanotechnologies due to industrialization and carbon imbalance.
  • Wood nanotechnology transforms natural wood into programmable substrates with tailored nanoarchitectures, classifying it as a bio-based nanomaterial.

Purpose Of The Study

  • To systematically categorize wood-specific nanoengineering strategies.
  • To highlight the mechanisms and impacts of these strategies on wood's properties.
  • To summarize recent progress in applying functionalized wood to sustainable technologies.

Main Methods

  • Thermal carbonization
  • Laser-induced graphenization
  • Targeted delignification
  • Nanomaterial integration
  • Mechanical processing

Main Results

  • Nanoengineering strategies can be combined modularly to reconfigure wood for diverse applications.
  • Functionalized wood enables efficient charge transport, selective adsorption, and enhanced light-to-heat conversion.
  • Applications include energy storage (batteries, supercapacitors), water treatment (adsorption, filtration), and energy conversion (solar evaporation, thermoelectrics, hydrovoltaics, triboelectric nanogenerators).

Conclusions

  • Nanoengineered wood presents a promising platform for next-generation green energy and environmental systems.
  • Challenges include scalable fabrication, material integration, and long-term environmental stability.
  • Future research should focus on overcoming these challenges to advance wood-based platforms.

Keywords:

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