Single-digit-micrometer thickness wood speaker

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Date
2019-11-08Author
Gan, Wentao
Chen, Chaoji
Kim, Hyun-Tae
Lin, Zhiwei
Dai, Jiaqi
Dong, Zhihua
Zhou, Zhan
Ping, Weiwei
He, Shuaiming
Xiao, Shaoliang
Yu, Miao
Hu, Liangbing
Citation
Gan, W., Chen, C., Kim, H. et al. Single-digit-micrometer thickness wood speaker. Nat Commun 10, 5084 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13053-0
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Thin films of several microns in thickness are ubiquitously used in packaging, electronics, and acoustic sensors. Here we demonstrate that natural wood can be directly converted into an ultrathin film with a record-small thickness of less than 10 μm through partial delignification followed by densification. Benefiting from this aligned and laminated structure, the ultrathin wood film exhibits excellent mechanical properties with a high tensile strength of 342 MPa and a Young’s modulus of 43.6 GPa, respectively. The material’s ultrathin thickness and exceptional mechanical strength enable excellent acoustic properties with a 1.83-times higher resonance frequency and a 1.25-times greater displacement amplitude than a commercial polypropylene diaphragm found in an audio speaker. As a proof-of-concept, we directly use the ultrathin wood film as a diaphragm in a real speaker that can output music. The ultrathin wood film with excellent mechanical property and acoustic performance is a promising candidate for next-generation acoustic speakers.
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Partial funding for Open Access provided by the UMD Libraries' Open Access Publishing Fund.