Warsaw: Scientists have recently discovered a completely new type of wood.
According to media reports, scientists have discovered a type of wood that can turbocharge the ability of trees to store carbon.
This wood is found in tulip trees and is a nanoscale wood structure that lies between hardwood and softwood, termed “midwood.”
Scientists explain that the structure of this wood accounts for its high efficiency in carbon storage.
At Poland’s Jagiellonian University, scientist Jan Laikzakoski and his colleagues, in collaboration with the UK’s Cambridge University Botanic Garden, investigated the nanoscale structures of living wood samples from 33 types of trees.
They froze each sample in a slush of nitrogen, maintaining the samples at a temperature of minus 210 degrees Celsius.
They found that hardwood trees like oak or birch have microfibrils approximately 15 nanometers in diameter, while softwood trees have larger microfibrils with diameters of 25 nanometers or more.