The emerging development of transparent wood: materials, characteristics, and applications

Purpose of review Transparent wood (TW) has attracted much interest from researchers as an emerging optical load-bearing material because of its advanced characteristics. These advantages mainly include being renewable, existing abundant reserves, low cost, interesting optical properties, outstanding mechanical performance, and low thermal conductivity. This review summarizes the current research activities that center on the development of transparent wood. Recent findings This review first addresses wood structural features and chemical composition. The effects of lignin removal, wood species, and resin types on the properties of transparent wood have been explored by researchers. Moreover, many studies highlight the properties of transparent wood, including optical and thermal properties and mechanical performance. An increasing number of studies have focused on the preparation of functional transparent wood and its commercial application. Summary We summarize transparent wood research processes and perspectives on several issues that need further exploration. Lignin removal is one of the most important factors in the processing of transparent wood. Thus, more efficient and greener methods need to be developed to achieve lignin removal or modification to suit the requirements of high-performance transparent wood. The main research objectives would be new functional properties such as electromagnetic shielding, intelligent photoelectric response, high hardness, and electrical conductivity of transparent wood.