Petrified wood: Quick and easy.

PETRIFACTION; WOOD products; SILICON carbide; POROUS silicon; RADIOACTIVE waste purification; CARBON dioxide mitigation

The article reports that materials scientists have discovered how to create petrified wood. In the January "Advanced Materials," Yongsoon Shin and his colleagues at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington, share their recipe. They first soak blocks of pine and poplar in an acid bath to remove lignin, a gluelike substance in the wood, and then move them into a solution containing mineral-forming silica. Next, the team heats the dried, silica-infused wood to 1,400°C in an argon-filled furnace. The tough, heat-resistant, highly porous silicon carbide ceramic might soak up radioactive waste or remove carbon dioxide from smokestacks.