Research Articles

In recent years, concerns about environmental waste caused by petroleum-derived chemicals as well as the consumer’s demand for high quality food products, have prompted people to pay more attention to developing biodegradable food packaging materials using natural resources such as cellulose fibers and chitin derivatives. In this study, chitin whiskers have been successfully generated by hydrolyzing the α-chitin sample. Then the synthesized nano-sized chitin whiskers were used at ratios from 0.1% to 2% (wt%) for improving strength properties of paper sheets by the dip-coating method. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) were used to investigate the morphology of chitin whiskers and cellulose fiber compounds. The results showed that coating with chitin whiskers brought about an increase in tear strength, burst strength, and wet and dry tensile strength, with a decrease in Zeta-potential value.

Hot water extraction (HWE) prior to pulping of wood is a promising method in constructing a platform for traditional pulping or for biorefinery processing. In this study, HWE of aspen wood at a maximum reaction temperature (Treaction) between 140 and 180 ºC was investigated to obtain an optimal extraction condition for wood-derived products. The effect of extraction temperature and reaction time on the extraction performance of the chemical constituents was evaluated, and the degradation and redeposition of lignin and carbohydrates during the HWE process were assessed. Results showed that a minimum Treaction of 160 ºC was necessary for satisfactory carbohydrate removal. The dissolution and readsorption of sugars reached a balance, such that no more sugars in pre-extraction liquor (PEL) were adsorbed on the wood surface under more severe extraction conditions. The reduction of sugars dissolved in PEL should result from the formation of furfural or its derivatives. At the final extraction stage, the dissolved lignin in PEL could redeposit on the exothecium rather than the endothecium of the wood chips.

Rice husk and sawdust were selected as the raw materials for a study of biomass char yield in the range of 600 to 900 °C. It was found that temperature was the primary factor affecting the biomass char yield. The yield of the rice husk and sawdust chars decreased significantly with increasing temperature. As the residence time increased, the biomass char yield decreased. The smaller the size of the biomass particles, the higher the char yield. When the temperature exceeded 800 °C, the difference in the char yield was only slight. Given this finding, the surface morphologies of rice husk, sawdust, and their respective chars were investigated under various conditions via scanning electron microscopy. The effects of temperature on the pore structures were investigated by the Accelerated Surface Area and Porosimetry System. There were more holes in the biomass char, and the specific surface area was increased significantly as the temperature increased. The specific surface areas of rice husk and sawdust chars prepared at 900 °C were 320 and 1140 m2/g, respectively.

Pyrogallol, as an important chemical raw material and reagent, has been prepared by the decarboxylation reaction of gallic acid hydrolyzing tannin acid extracted from Chinese gall, but the decarboxylation reaction is known to cause serious environmental pollution. To obtain efficient strains to degrade gallic acid, a screening study was carried out to explore different strains and optimal fermentation conditions of single impact factors, as well as using response surface methodology. The antioxidant bioactivity of products containing pyrogallol in the fermentation medium was also estimated. The results indicated that Enterobacter aerogenes could degrade gallic acid into pyrogallol with 77.86% average yield under the optimal fermentation conditions of an inoculum size of 5%, substrate concentration of 0.32%, incubation period of 60 h, fermentation temperature of 32 °C, content of phosphate buffer at 25%, and an initial pH of 6.0 in fermentation medium. The products contained 66.5% pyrogallol and were tested for their antioxidant capacity. They proved to have stronger antioxidant capacity compared with ABTS, BHT, and even Vc. In conclusion, the study provided a simple, highly efficient method, superior to complex genetic engineering technologies, to degrade gallic acid into pyrogallol, suggesting the possibility of large-scale production in the future.

A combination of reinforcements at different levels can have a synergetic effect on the final properties of a composite. The aim of this work was to produce, evaluate, and compare the wet/dry cycling durability of the exposure of cement composites reinforced with conventional pulps at the micro-scale level, with nanofibrillated cellulose fibers at the nano-scale level, and with combinations of both reinforcements (hybrid composites). To evaluate the durability of their mechanical properties, the composites were tested under flexural loading after 28 days of humidity chamber curing and after 20 wet/dry accelerating aging cycles. Composites reinforced with the nanofibrillated cellulose exhibited significantly higher flexural strength and flexural modulus, but they had lower fracture energy values than those reinforced with conventional sisal fibers. Moreover, the hybrid composites with a high content of nanofibrillated cellulose maintained or even improved their properties after aging.

In this study, the strength and stiffness was measured on paper sheets with and without acryl ester functionalization grafted with UV-reactive molecules. Three different monomers with one, two, and three UV-reactive groups, respectively, were reacted with the unsaturated ester. The tri-functional monomer had the most influence on the strength properties of the three monomers and was added in concentrations of 5 to 20 wt% of paper (0.03-0.11 mol eq./AGU). The strength and stiffness properties were measured with tensile tests. An increase in elongation, tensile index, and Young’s modulus was seen after irradiation. However, the paper sheets esterified with acrylic acid prior to radiation showed no improvement in stiffness compared to a non-treated paper. As a result, the esterification with acrylic acid to enhance the grafting effect did not have the ability to compensate for the loss in strength caused by the esterification treatment.

Wood-based composite panels generally are first tested out-of-plane in the primary panel direction followed by the cross panel direction, but rarely edgewise. While most applications use wood-based composites in the flat-wise orientation and only need the out-of-plane properties, there are construction configurations where edgewise properties are needed for improved design configurations. A square cantilever beam was used to determine the apparent stiffness (EI) and modulus of elasticity (E) differences for 3 wood-based composite panel materials. Specimens were cut along the primary panel direction or machine direction (MD) and perpendicular to the primary direction or cross-machine direction (CD). The square specimens were first non-destructively tested oriented in the normal or out-of-plane position, then rotated 90 degrees to measure edgewise properties. The results for a 20 mm thick medium density fiberboard (MDF) showed that the MD properties were 56% higher than the CD properties. The other two composite materials, 12 mm thick particleboard (PB) and 12 mm thick MDF, were essentially the same in the MD or CD directions. For all the materials, the differences between the out-of-plane and the edgewise loading directions showed higher EI and E between 17 to 61%, respectively. The largest difference was found in the PB composite material properties that were between 42 to 61% higher for the out-of-plane properties. For the 12 and 20 mm thick MDF material, in-plane properties were 27 to 33% and 17 to 23% higher, respectively. The cantilever bending method was able to quickly assess the difference using the same specimen.

The effects of natural and synthetic polymer additives on the properties of ultrafiltration membranes were studied. The use of NaOH to remove the residual additive remaining in the membranes during coagulation was also investigated, as was the effect of NaOH post-treatment relative to membrane performance. To evaluate the residual additives present, ATR-FTIR was used. Contact-angle analysis and water-absorption experiments were used to examine the hydrophilic properties of the prepared membranes. Membranes modified with lignin (Lig) were found to absorb more water (94% water uptake) than other membranes. In general, the contact angles were found to be low for membranes treated with NaOH. Membrane permeability was greatest in lignin_polysulfone (Lig_PSf), followed by polyvinylpyrrolidone_polysulfone (PVP_PSf), and with polyethylene glycol_polysulfone (PEG_PSf) the least permeable, similar to the trend observed in water uptake. A ‘Robeson plot’ analogue showed that Lig_PSf membranes had high separation factors regardless of the size of the solute being rejected. This study indicates the feasibility of using cheap, readily available additives to increase the performance of membranes.

The effects of thermomechanical densification (TMD) and heat treatment on density and Brinell hardness of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and Eastern beech (Fagus orientalis L.) woods were investigated. Samples were densified using a specially designed hydraulic press with target compression ratios of 20 and 40%, and at 110 °C and 150 °C. Then, the heat treatment was applied to the samples at three different temperatures. To determine whether the changes occurred because of technological properties, tests of Brinell hardness and air-dry density were conducted. Increases of 42 and 35% were obtained for the density of Scots pine and beech samples, respectively. After the densification process, increases in radial and tangential hardness values were obtained. Decreases were observed in the density and hardness values of the samples because of the increase in temperature during heat treatment. After heat treatment, there were 4 and 5% decreases in the respective densities of Scots pine and beech, and decreases in their radial and tangential hardness values.

An equivalent strain method was used to analyze and determine material relaxation properties for specimens from particleboard, high density fiberboard, and medium density fiberboard. Cantilever beams were clamped and then deflected to 11 m and held for either 2 h or 3 h, while the load to maintain that deflection was measured vs. time. Plots of load relaxation for each specimen showed similar load relaxation vs. time even though there were some slight differences in the maximum load per sample. Three models were developed to fit the relaxation data. The first model was a simple log decrement. This simple log model used only one variable, the relaxation coefficient, to describe the relaxation behavior as the log of time. The log decrement model was marginal at best in modeling the relaxation data. The second and third models, however, used equivalent strain methods. The second model assumed a combined linear-elastic spring and a Kelvin-Voigt spring-dashpot model. The third model used a combination of a linear-elastic spring (linear strain) element, a Kelvin-Voigt (spring-dashpot, visco-elastic strain) element, and a dashpot (permanent strain) element for its total configuration. Both equivalent strain models provided excellent correlations for the two lengths of time used for this series. Estimated mechanical and relaxation, or creep properties, were determined from the equivalent strain method using cantilever beam equations.