Wood Materials for Optics and Photonics Webinar

Historically, wood-light interaction studies have been focused on the investigation of photodegradation mechanisms (and strategies to counteract it) or the development of spectroscopic analytical techniques. However, the careful exploitation of wood’s unique anisotropic hierarchical structure and composition can open enticing opportunities for the design and production of sustainable optical and photonic materials. This talk will showcase recent advances in the field of wood optics and photonics, with a special focus on light-emitting wood composites and their relevance for the energy and building sectors.  

Learning Outcomes:

1. Identify strategies for improving the optical and photonic properties of wood, resulting in the formation of composites with e.g. enhanced transparency, light emission ability.
2. Identify possible applications of optical and photonic wood materials e.g. for energy saving, energy conversion, environmental sensing.

Guido Panzarasa received his PhD in Chemical Sciences in 2016 from the University of Eastern Piedmont “Amedeo Avogadro” (Italy). In 2018 he joined ETH Zürich as a postdoc in Prof. Eric Dufresne’s group (Department of Materials), where he started to explore the synergies between systems chemistry and materials science aiming to develop chemically-programmable life-mimicking materials. In 2020 he was promoted group leader in the Wood Materials Science Laboratory (Prof. Ingo Burgert, Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering) and his research focus drifted towards sustainability, green chemistry and functional wood materials.