青島希尼爾翻譯公司（www.googlemapbuilder.com）整理發(fā)布2018-07-28

希尼爾翻譯公司（www.googlemapbuilder.com）2018年7月28日了解到：How to make buildings, cars and aircraft from materials based on natural fibres？

如何用基于天然纖維的材料蓋房子及造汽車和飛機呢？

USING carrots to create concrete, turning wood into plastic, or even compressing it into a “super wood” that is as light and strong as titanium might sound like a series of almost Frankensteinish experiments. Yet all three are among the latest examples of employing natural fibres from plants as eco-friendly additives or alternatives to man-made materials.

用胡蘿卜拌制混凝土；把木頭變成塑料；把木頭壓縮成和鈦一樣又輕又堅固的“超級木材”。這聽起來像是科學怪人鼓搗的一連串瘋狂實驗。實際上，這是研究人員嘗試把植物中的天然纖維用作環(huán)保添加劑或人造材料的替代品的最近三例。

Materials-science researchers are finding that plant fibres can add durability and strength to substances already used in the construction of buildings and in goods that range from toys and furniture to cars and aircraft. A big bonus is that, because plants lock up carbon in their structure, using their fibres to make things should mean less carbon dioxide is emitted. The production of concrete alone represents some 5% of man-made global CO2 emissions, and making 1kg of plastic from oil produces 6kg of the greenhouse gas.

材料科學研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，在建筑材料以及玩具、家具、汽車、飛機等各種商品的原材料中添加植物纖維，能讓它們更耐久、更結實。而由于植物可將碳封存在其組織內，使用植物纖維應該還會帶來一大好處——減少二氧化碳排放。單是混凝土生產就造成了全球大約5%的人為二氧化碳排放，而用石油生產1公斤塑料會產生6千克溫室氣體。

Start with the carrots. These are being investigated by Mohamed Saafi at Lancaster University, in England. Dr Saafi and his colleagues do not use whole carrots, but rather what they call “nanoplatelets” that have been extracted from carrots discarded by supermarkets or as waste from food-processing factories. Sugar-beet peelings are also a useful source of nanoplatelets. The researchers are working with CelluComp, a British firm that produces such platelets for industrial applications, including as an additive that helps toughen the surface of paint as it dries.

先來看胡蘿卜的妙用。英國蘭卡斯特大學的默罕默德.薩菲（Mohamed Saafi）正在探究這種植物的用處。薩菲和同事們用的并不是整根胡蘿卜，而是所謂的“納米薄片”，是從超市丟棄或被食品加工廠當作廢料的胡蘿卜中提取而來。甜菜皮也是制作納米薄片的有用材料。研究人員正在和英國公司CelluComp合作。這家公司生產工業(yè)用途的納米薄片，其中有一種可用作添加劑，能讓干燥后的油漆表面更牢固。

Each platelet is only a few millionths of a metre across. It consists of a sheet of stiff cellulose fibres. Although the fibres are minute, they are strong. By combining platelets with other materials a powerful composite can be produced. Dr Saafi is mixing the platelets into cement, which is made by burning limestone and clay together at high temperature. (The chemical reaction between them releases carbon dioxide from the limestone.) To turn cement into concrete it is mixed with aggregates such as sand, stones and crushed rocks, which act as reinforcement, and with water, which reacts with the chemicals in the cement to form a substance called calcium silicate hydrate. This starts off as a thick gel, but then hardens into a solid matrix that binds the aggregates together.

每個薄片只有一米的幾百萬分之一寬，由一層硬的纖維素纖維構成。這種纖維雖然非常細小，卻很結實。將薄片與其他材料結合，便能得到強大的復合材料。薩菲正在把薄片與水泥混合。水泥由石灰石與粘土高溫燒制而成。（二者發(fā)生的化學反應會令石灰石釋放二氧化碳。）要將水泥變成混凝土，需要將它與骨料和水混合，骨料包括砂石和碎石，起加固的作用；水會與水泥中的化學物質發(fā)生反應，形成一種叫作水化硅酸鈣的物質。一開始它是一層厚厚的膠狀物，但之后會硬化成一種固體基質，將骨料結合在一起。

By adding vegetable platelets to the mix, Dr Saafi and his colleagues can make concrete stronger. This is useful in itself, but it also permits a reduction in the ratio of cement to aggregates that is required to achieve a given level of strength. Reducing the amount of cement in this way consequently reduces CO2 emissions.

薩菲及同事將蔬菜納米薄片加入混合物，讓混凝土變得更堅固。這本身就很有益處，但采用這種手段還可以降低水泥與骨料的比例（這兩者需要達到一定比例才能使混凝土達到特定強度）。如此減少水泥的用量，也就可以減少二氧化碳的排放。

The group is still exploring exactly how strong it can make concrete by adding platelets, but initial studies suggest that the impact could be considerable. Just 500 grams of platelets can reduce the amount of cement needed to make a cubic metre of concrete by about 40kg—a saving of 10%. Dr Saafi and his team have now embarked on a two-year study to investigate the process in more detail and to perfect the best mix for use by the construction industry.

這個團隊仍在探究采用添加納米薄片的方法究竟能讓混凝度達到何種強度，但初步研究已經顯示，其效用可能會相當可觀。僅500克納米薄片就可以使生產一立方米混凝土的水泥用量減少約40公斤，相當于節(jié)省10%。薩菲和他的團隊如今已開始了一項為期兩年的研究，準備更加詳盡地探究工藝流程，找出最佳配比，以供在建筑行業(yè)應用。

Unlike cement, wood is already a composite material. It is made of cellulose fibres embedded in a matrix of lignin, an organic polymer that serves a number of purposes, including providing woody plants with their rigidity. In May Stora Enso, a Finnish forestry-products company, launched a wood-derived alternative to oil-based plastics. This material, called DuraSense, looks a bit like popcorn. It consists of wood fibres, including lignin, obtained from pulping and other operations. The fibres are mixed with oil-based polymers and other additives, such as colouring agents. The resulting granules can be melted and moulded in the same way as plastic is in factory processes. Adding wood fibres, the company says, can reduce the amount of plastic needed to make goods with plastic parts by 60%.

和水泥不同，木材已經是一種復合材料了。它是由嵌在木質素基質中的纖維素纖維制成。木質素是一種有多種用途的有機聚合物，其中之一就是賦予木本植物硬度。5月，芬蘭林產品公司斯道拉恩索（Stora Enso）發(fā)布了一種源自木材的材料，可替代以石油為原料的塑料制品。這種材料名叫DuraSense，看上去有點像爆米花，是由包括木質素在內的木纖維構成，這些纖維是通過制漿等操作方法獲取的。該公司將木纖維與基于石油的聚合物以及著色劑等其他添加物混合，所形成的顆?？梢匀刍⑺苄?，就像工廠中為塑料塑形的工藝一樣。該公司稱，在生產含有塑料配件的商品時如采用這種添加木纖維的做法，可以將塑料的使用量減少60%。

Stora Enso has also found a use for pure lignin, which is often a waste product of papermaking, since most paper is made of pulp with the lignin removed. Stora Enso’s engineers have worked out how to use lignin as a substitute for the oil-based resins and adhesives employed in the manufacture of engineered timbers, such as plywoods. Nor are they alone in looking for structural applications for lignin. Along with others they are seeking ways to use it to replace oil-based materials in carbon-fibre composites, which are used to make lightweight parts for cars and aircraft.

斯道拉恩索還為純木質素找到了用處。由于大多數(shù)紙張都是由去除了木質素的木漿制成，因而這種物質在造紙業(yè)中往往是廢料。斯道拉恩索的工程師已經研究出方法，既可以將木質素用作石油樹脂的替代品，還可以在生產膠合板等工程木料時將它用作黏合劑。為木質素尋找結構性用途的并非只有斯道拉恩索的工程師。其他人也和他們一樣，正在探究如何以木質素替代碳纖維復合材料（用來為汽車和飛機制造輕量部件）中的石化材料。

By contrast, Hu Liangbing and Li Teng of the University of Maryland are trying to make a better material by removing, rather than adding, lignin. Their aim is to create a “super wood” that is stronger than most metals. Their approach is to treat blocks of wood with sodium hydroxide and sodium sulphate in a chemical process similar to that used to remove lignin from papermaking pulp. The difference is that they remove only enough lignin to make the wooden blocks easier to compress. They do that by squeezing the treated wood at around 100°C, which causes most of the pores and tubelike fibres within the wood to collapse. This increases its density threefold and its strength elevenfold.

馬里蘭大學的胡良兵和李騰則是嘗試通過去除而非添加木質素的方法來制造一種更好的材料。他們的目標是研制出比大多數(shù)金屬都要堅固的“超級木材”，方法是用氫氧化鈉和硫酸鈉對木料加以處理，這一化學過程與從造紙用漿中去除木質素類似。只不過，他們僅去除了木料中的部分木質素，使木材恰好達到更易壓縮的程度。他們將處理過的木料放到大約100℃的溫度下做擠壓，木頭中的大多數(shù)管孔和管狀纖維就會被破壞。這會使木料的密度提升至原來的三倍，強度提升11倍。

That puts super wood on a par with some of the lightweight titanium alloys used in high-strength aerospace components. It is also bulletproof. In one test Dr Hu and Dr Li made a laminated sample by placing five sheets of the stuff on top of one another, each sheet having its fibres aligned at right-angles to those of the sheet below. When shot at, this material splintered but was still able to trap a steel projectile that passed effortlessly through a similarly sized sample of natural wood.

這樣一來，超級木材就足以和高強度航空航天部件所采用的某些輕量鈦合金相媲美了。這種木材還具備防彈功能。在一次測試中，胡良兵和李騰將五層超級木材疊放，制成一個層壓板樣品，每一層木板中的纖維都與下一層的呈直角。被射擊后這種材料發(fā)生碎裂，但仍將鋼彈卡在了中間。尺寸相近的天然木材樣本則被子彈輕松穿透。

The team are now trying to commercialise their process, which Dr Hu thinks will be cheap to scale up. It works on both hardwoods and softwoods, so a range of materials can be created. Dr Hu reckons that, one day, houses, cars, furniture and many other things will be made mainly or partly from densified wood.

這個團隊目前正嘗試將這項工藝商業(yè)化，胡良兵認為它能以低廉的成本實現(xiàn)規(guī)模化。這項工藝在硬木和軟木上均適用，因而可以研制出多種材料。胡良兵認為，某一天，房子、汽車、家具以及其他很多東西都會主要或部分由壓縮木材制成。
來源:The Economist