New plant-derived composite is tough as bone and hard as aluminum

Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office The material could pave the way for sustainable plastics. The strongest part of a tree lies not in its trunk or its sprawling roots, but in the walls of its microscopic cells. A single wood cell wall is constructed from fibers of cellulose ­— nature’s most abundant polymer, and the main … Continue reading New plant-derived composite is tough as bone and hard as aluminum