Superwetting-Enabled In Situ Silicification for Artificial Silicified Wood

Wooden artifacts have attracted comprehensive concern as the witnesses of human civilization; however, their conservation suffers from many difficulties, such as natural degradation and biological invasion. Silicified wood, as a fossil material that has existed for millions of years, provides a valuable clue for the long-term conservation of wooden materials. In this work, a superwetting-enabled in situ silicification strategy is reported to silicify wood in a confined way, fabricating artificial silicified wood within 100 h. The superwetting process of the silica sol enables multi-scale high silica filling throughout the entire wood from the nanoscale to the macroscale. The artificial silicified wood shows a high flexural strength of ≈216.49 MPa and super resistance against termites and fungi. The artificial silicified wood retains 98.70% of its mass against termites, and over 90.64% of its mass against fungi, meeting the safest level in the global standards. The finding provides a general silicification approach for wood-like materials with complex hierarchical structures and a promisingly alternative solution for the conservation of wooden artifacts.