The Digest’s Top 10 Innovations for the week of May 17th, 2018

#5 Sea squirt could hold key to better wood composites

In Maryland, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have developed a composite material that is flexible, nontoxic, and UV light-reflective using wood pulp and dried up pieces of tunicate, a marine creature commonly known as the sea squirt.

The two materials formed a Bouligand Structure, which is resistance to cracking and transfers energy in a way that leaves the material intact.  On its own, wood pulp is brittle, but adding 5% dried, crushed tunicates enabled a functional Bouligand Structure to be achieved.

NIST’s Jeff Gilman says the composite material could be used in food packaging, biomedical devices, building and construction, and automobiles.

The work was included in a recent issue of Advanced Functional Materials.