Researchers at the University of Texas have unveiled a patented, wood-based material that could advance how we regulate indoor climates.
Researchers at the University of Texas have developed a wood-based material that regulates building temperatures without electricity.This innovation addresses the growing need for energy-efficient climate control in buildings.
Newly designed wood-based material offers a green solution that uses phase-change technology to store energy during the day and release it at night, without relying on the power grid.“Our material acts as a thermal battery that charges as it absorbs heat,” said Dr. Shuang Cui, assistant professor of mechanical engineering in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science.Phase-change technology Thermal energy storage acts as a bridge between energy supply and demand. The tech can capture surplus environmental heat during the day and recycle it for warmth at night. This approach allows buildings to balance their energy loads naturally, reducing the need for active heating and cooling systems.When standard building materials are infused with phase-change technology, it act as a built-in thermal buffer, absorbing daytime heat and releasing it at night to stabilize indoor temperatures.These materials absorb heat during melting and release it during solidification, significantly reducing electricity consumption and boosting energy efficiency.“During the summer, for example, the phase-change material will absorb and store heat from the exterior, which would reduce the rise of room temperature,” Cui explained. “If the building has enough phase-change material incorporated, the air conditioning may not need to be turned on,” the author added.Use of wood While PCMs have been studied for years, the materials always had a messy flaw: they leak. In particular, phase-change materials tend to leak during the liquid-to-solid transition, which complicates practical applications. Typical methods involve caging these substances within a host material. But this often backfires. The host acts as dead weight, occupying space without contributing any heat-storage capacity, ultimately diluting the material’s overall efficiency.The UTD team, collaborating with giants like the National Laboratory of the Rockies and UC Berkeley, found the answer in the cellular architecture of trees.The team stripped the lignin — the rigid glue in plant cells — from wood, leaving a porous cellulose skeleton.After this, the pores were saturated with a blend of phase-change material and a stabilizing soft plastic.This ingenious combination serves a dual purpose: the plastic locks the heat-storing material in place to prevent leaks during melting while simultaneously reinforcing the wood’s structural strength.Works for 1,000 cyclesIn lab tests, the material survived 1,000 cycles of heating and cooling without a single leak or a loss in structural strength.“Unlike many energy-storage materials that sacrifice strengths, these wood-templated phase-change composites maintain mechanical integrity under repeated heating and cooling cycles, making them both energy efficient and mechanically durable, which are critical for long-term use in buildings,” said Dr. Hongbing Lu, one of the study’s co-authors. The research team is now focused on refining and commercializing this technology to bring energy-efficient climate control to the mass market.According to co-author Gustavo Felicio Perruci, the project’s success stems from a powerful interdisciplinary collaboration with national laboratories, proving that sustainable materials can be transformed into viable, real-world engineering solutions.The findings were published in Materials Today Energy.
Climate Control Energy &Amp Environment Inventions And Machines Phase-Change Technology Sustainability Wood-Based Material
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