Silicified Wood with Dual Fire Retardancy and Thermal Management Functionalities

作者：Kunkun Tu, Jinjing Liu, Jiayi Li, Suhao Li, Suhao Li, Xu Zhang, Shihang Li, Shihang Li · 发表于：Polymers · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.3390/polym17172293 · 被引用次数：5 · 研究领域：Flame retardant materials and properties、Fire dynamics and safety research、Structural Analysis of Composite Materials

Fire retardancy and thermal management are critical for energy-efficient, fire-safe buildings. Natural wood, a mainstream construction material, possesses inherent advantages but lacks such dual functionality. Silicified wood was fabricated via multi-cycle silicification of native wood, where SiO2 uniformly infiltrates and fills the lumens. The treated wood material displays an improved limiting oxygen index (LOI) from 21.9% to 36.0%, and delayed ignition from 15 s to 50 s, compared to untreated wood. It demonstrates a low thermal conductivity of 0.074 W·m−1·K−1, showing enhanced emissivity. When heated on a 75 °C hot plate, the silicified wood surface reaches ~50 °C after 5 s, versus ~60 °C for native wood. These enhancements collectively improve thermal management performance, achieving insulation through reduced thermal conduction and passive cooling via optimized infrared regulation. Ultimate tensile stress remains nearly unchanged post-treatment, while toughness is significantly improved. This work advances wood as a sustainable building material, with promising potential for fire-safe, energy-efficient construction applications.