Functionalized Wood Veneers as Vibration Sensors: Exploring Wood Piezoelectricity and Hierarchical Structure Effects

Functional wood materials often rely on active additives due to the weak piezoelectric response of wood itself. Here, we chemically modify wood to form functionalized, eco-friendly wood veneer for self-powered vibration sensors. Only the piezoelectricity of the cellulose microfibrils is used, where the drastic improvement comes only from molecular and nanoscale wood structure tuning. Sequential wood modifications (delignification, oxidation, and model fluorination) are performed, and effects on vibration sensing abilities are investigated. Wood veneer piezoelectricity is characterized by the piezoresponse force microscopy mode in atomic force microscopy. Delignification, oxidation, and model fluorination of wood-based sensors provide output voltages of 11.4, 23.2, and 60 mV by facilitating cellulose microfibril deformation. The vibration sensing ability correlates with improved piezoelectricity and increased cellulose deformation, most likely by large, local cell wall bending. This shows that nanostructural wood materials design can tailor the functional properties of wood devices with potential in sustainable nanotechnology.