A superstrong, decarbonizing structural material enabled by microbe-assisted cell wall engineering via a biomechanochemical process

Lightweight and high-strength structural materials promise exceptional applications in advanced engineering fields. As a productive and sustainable material, wood exhibits exceptional potential to be converted into high-performance structural materials. Inspired by ancient buried wood—a naturally formed material after wood endures in microbial-rich and high-pressure environments for thousands of years—here, we demonstrate a biomechanochemical process to rapidly transform natural wood into artificial ancient buried wood (named Bio-Strong-Wood). Biotreatment depolymerizes the lignin and softens the cell wall. Then, Bio-Strong-Wood components are linked via a strong network of hydrogen and covalent bonds through the mechanochemical treatment. This results in a substantially enhanced mechanical strength (539 ± 21.7 megapascals), which outperforms the SAE 304 stainless steel. In addition, life cycle and technoeconomic assessments reveal that the obtained material achieves negative carbon emissions of 1.17 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilogram. Overall, our work provides an economically competitive, environmentally sustainable, and decarbonizing alternative to existing structural materials.