Nano-chemical treatment of wood for enhanced fungal and fire resistance

Wood is regarded as an eminent material for future green building. It allows to underpin several of the United Nations sustainable development goals and is regarded critical for the Green Deal objectives of the EU. Nevertheless, to enhance the potential it needs to be better understood in respect of fit-for-purpose based solutions to control both resistance against fire and fungal decay. In this project, we will apply new nano-chemicals and develop custom-made multimodal microscopy approaches to come to a breakthrough in wood protection technology. Both new insights in the use of nano-chemicals and the now available research techniques on cell wall level create the momentum to enable this breakthrough in providing wood products with fully controlled properties. This new technology should not only be valid for softwoods and hardwoods, both easy treatable and refractory, but also should perform adequately over time even in an environment prone to leaching. Increased service life both related to fungal decay and fire safety will be obtained by nanotechnological treatments that allow to reinvent some critical and innovative building products like CLT (cross laminated timber).