A Swedish university has developed a transistor made of wood, opening up the possibility of a future era of wood-based electronics and electronic controls.

Linköping University University and KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden announced on the 28th that they recently developed an electric transistor made of wood.

The newly developed electric transistor is said to be able to function continuously, unlike the past transistors that could only control theoretical transport, and can control the flow of electricity without any degradation in performance.

Researchers say they created the electrically conductive wood material by removing the lignin from balsa wood, leaving long cellulose fibers with channels where the lignin used to be, and then filling these channels with a conductive plastic, or polymer, called 'PEDOT:PSS.'

The researchers also confirmed the possibility of dynamic switching, which allows power to be turned on and off, albeit with some delay.

In dynamic switching measurements, the function generator is applied at 100 mHz while a constant VD of -6.0 V is applied.It is reported that VG is sourced as a square wave switching between 0 and 5.0 V.

It reportedly took about a second to power off and about five seconds to power on.

The researchers note that while it is not suitable for conventional electronic circuits, it has potential for wood-integrated applications ranging from electrochromic displays to simple logic circuits that respond to sensor inputs.