Rapid Processing of Whole Bamboo with Exposed, Aligned Nanofibrils toward a High-Performance Structural Material

Lightweight structural materials are critical in construction and automobile applications. In past centuries, there has been great success in developing strong structural materials, such as steels, concrete, and petroleum-based composites, most of which, however, are either too heavy, high cost, or nonrenewable. Biosourced composites are attractive alternatives to conventional structural materials, especially when high mechanical strength is presented. Here we demonstrate a strong, lightweight bio-based structural material derived from bamboo via a two-step manufacturing process involving partial delignification followed by microwave heating. Partial delignification is a critical step prior to microwave heating as it makes the cell walls of bamboo softer and exposes more cellulose nanofibrils, which enables superior densification of the bamboo structure via heat-driven shrinkage. Additionally, microwave heating, as a fast and uniform heating method, can drive water out of the bamboo structure, yet without destroying the material’s structural integrity, even after undergoing a large volume reduction of 28.9%. The resulting microwave-heated delignified bamboo structure demonstrates outstanding mechanical properties with a nearly 2-times improved tensile strength, 3.2-times enhanced toughness, and 2-times increased bending strength compared to natural bamboo. Additionally, the specific tensile strength of the modified bamboo structure reaches 560 MPa cm3 g–1, impressive given that its density is low (1.0 g cm–3), outperforming common structural materials, such as steels, metal alloys, and petroleum-based composites. These excellent mechanical properties combined with the resource abundance, renewable and sustainable features of bamboo, as well as the rapid, scalable manufacturing process, make this strong microwave-processed bamboo structure attractive for lightweight, energy-efficient engineering applications.