Research Articles

Heat treatment often brings about some negative effects on mechanical properties of wood. Chinese fir is currently underutilized due to some inherent properties that limit its further applications. Using steam as a heating medium and a shielding gas, the heartwood and sapwood of Chinese fir were treated at a temperature ranging from 170ºC to 230ºC and time from 1 to 5 hours in an airtight chamber. Both the modulus of rupture (MOR) and modulus of elasticity (MOE) were increased for the sapwood specimens under the temperature less than 200ºC for short treatment times. The hardness was increased for both two kinds of specimens under the temperature less than or about 200ºC, compared to the untreated specimens. The temperature has a stronger effect on mechanical properties of wood than the time, and the temperature of 200 ºC is a critical point in modifying mechanical properties of wood.

In this study, several kraft pulps were produced by kraft pulping of fast-growing Eucalyptus with a wide range of cooking conditions. The dependences between pulp yields and some pulp properties, namely, kappa number, HexA contents, and cellulose viscosities, were well investigated. It was found that kraft pulp yields linearly decreased with the reduction of HexA-free kappa number in two different stages, respectively, in which a transition point of measured pulp yield of 48.7% was observed. A similar relationship between pulp yield and HexA was also found, in which the resulting transition point of HexA content was 67 μmol/g. Moreover, the logarithm of pulp viscosity was linearly proportional to the reduction of lignin-free pulp yields. Then, a novel empirical model was successfully developed based on these findings. The parameters in this empirical model were calculated by least-squares estimation using the experimental data from active alkali values of 13.2, 14.7 and 17.8. Another data set was used to verify the effectiveness of this model in predicting the pulp yields. Finally, a good agreement (a linear regression coefficient of 90.59%) between experimental and fitting data was obtained, which indicated that the kraft pulp yield of fast-growing Eucalyptus could be accurately predicted by this novel empirical model.

p–p stacking of the aromatic groups in SL. Results show that the charge-free aromatic groups of SL tend to form oriented p–p stacking with the spectroscopic characteristics of J–aggregates. The formation of J–aggregates in SL are recognized by a significant spectral red shift in fluorescent excitation spectra. The other effects that may cause spectral shift, such as the SL species, solvent effect, and the impurities, are investigated to confirm that the formation of J-aggregates is the only viable explanation for the significant spectral redshift of SL. causes molecular shrinkage of SL polyelectrolytes, but has no influence on J–aggregates of the aromatic groups as detected by lack of spectral shift, indicating that the aromatic groups are charge-free. This suggests that not all the aromatic groups but only the charge-free aromatic groups can form p–p stacking. This work demonstrates the presence of J–aggregation in aqueous SL solutions for the first time, which gives an insight in understanding the preferred orientation of the aromatic groups in lignin-based biopolymers.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of oxygen and moisture content (MC) on the chemical and color changes of black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) wood during heat treatment. The wood flour was conditioned to different initial MCs and heated for 24 h at a constant temperature of 120ºC in either oxygen or nitrogen atmosphere. The pH values and chromaticity indexes were examined. Diffuse reflectance UV-Vis (DRUV) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra were used to characterize the changes of chromophores upon heating. The study demonstrated that the pH values decreased after heat treatment, and it was lower when the heat treated was in oxygen than in nitrogen. The L* decreased significantly, while a* and b* increased. The total color difference ΔE* increased with increasing initial MC until a plateau was reached after 30% MC. The color change was greater in oxygen than in nitrogen. The hydroxyl groups decreased after heat treatment. The releases of acid and formation of quinoid compounds and carboxylic groups during heat treatment were confirmed. Discoloration of wood is due mainly to the condensation and oxidation reactions, which are accelerated by oxygen. Higher MCs are required to obtain the greatest color change of wood in inert atmosphere.

A locally isolated white rot fungal strain Trametes versicolor IBL-04 produced high laccase activities in solid state bio-processing of corn cobs. Addition of glucose and yeast extract (C: N ratio; 25:1) enhanced laccase synthesis. Addition of Tween-80 and CuSO4 enhanced laccase production to 1012 U/mL under optimized process conditions. Laccase was further purified to 2.89-fold (specific activity of 840 U/mg) by ammonium sulfate fractional precipitation, dialysis, and Sephadex G-100 gel filtration chromatography. The purified laccase had a relative molecular mass of 63 kDa as detected by sodium dodecylsulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). Best enzyme activity was at pH 5 and 40oC. Using 2,2′-azinobis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) as substrate, the enzyme showed maximum activity (Vmax) of 780 U/mL with a corresponding Michaelis constant (Km) value of 73µM. Among the different activators/inhibitors, Cu2+, Mn2+, and Fe2+ stimulated laccase activity, whereas EDTA and cystein inhibited the enzyme. The higher Vmax and lower Km for T. versicolor IBL-04laccase as compared to most of the reported laccases suggests its potential for industrial applications.

The extracellular enzyme production capacity of Pleurotus ostreatus MTCC 142 was investigated for decolorization of crystal violet under solid and submerged conditions. Laccases are the major extracellular lignocellulolytic enzymes produced by fungus. Pleurotus ostreatus provided an effective decolorization of dye at 20 mg/L concentration up to 92%. Mycelial growth was observed maximum on plate for a dye concentration 20 mg/L while lowest on 200 mg/L on day 12, respectively. At all concentrations of dye studied, maximum laccase activity was observed on day 8. For 20 mg/L of dye laccase activity was 133 U/L. The decolorization was attributed to microbial action and without role of pH change; less than 0.4 pH change was observed. Manganese dependent peroxidase activity was 106 U/L, maximum on day 8 incubated with 20 mg/L dye concentration. The present study suggested that the high efficiency decolorization of crystal violet by P. ostreatus was assisted by laccase and manganese-dependent peroxidase activity and can be exploited as a promising in biological treatment of waste water containing crystal violet.

The aim of this work was to thermally characterize the renewable lignocellulosic bioresources derived from palm trees in order to highlight their energy potential. Pyrolysis and combustion behaviours of date stones (DS) agricultural by-products were tested by thermo-gravimetric analysis, and the main chemical compositions were analyzed. The work has also been conducted to identify their most important physical characteristics. The study of the sizes and heating rate effects constitute the first part of the experimental work. Inert atmosphere and three heating rates: 10, 20, and 50 °C/min, were applied to various particle sizes of DS. In the second part, tests were carried out in an oxidizing atmosphere (21% O2) by varying the size of the DS. The kinetic parameters such as pre-exponential factor and activation energy were determined. Increasing the particle sizes and the heating rates didn’t have an appreciable influence on the global weight losses. However, degradation rates were significant with the porous structure of the DS. Weight losses in inert and oxidizing atmospheres were found to occur in two stages (drying and devolatilization) and in three stages (drying, devolatilization, and oxidation of the char).

Chemical modification is an often-followed route to improve physical and mechanical properties of solid wood materials. In this study five kinds of tropical light hardwoods species, namely jelutong (Dyera costulata), terbulan(Endospermum diadenum), batai (Paraserianthes moluccana), rubberwood (Hevea brasiliensis), and pulai (Alstonia pneumatophora), were chemically modified with benzene diazonium salt to improve their dimensional stability and water repellent efficiency. The dimensional stability of treated samples in terms of volumetric swelling coefficient (S) and anti-swelling-efficiency (ASE) were found to improve with treatment. The water repellent efficiency (WRE) values also seemed to improve considerably with treatment of wood samples. Furthermore, treated wood samples had lower water and moisture absorption compared to that of untreated ones.

The mechanical properties and structure of cactus Opuntia ficus-indica spines were characterised in bending and by means of x-ray diffraction. Using spruce wood cell walls for reference, the modulus of elasticity of Opuntia cactus spines was high in absolute terms, but comparable when specific values were considered, which can be explained by similarities in the cell wall structure of both materials. Differently from the modulus of elasticity, the bending strength of cactus spines was unexpectedly high both in absolute and in specific terms. The unique cellulose-arabinan composite structure of cactus spines, together with high cellulose crystallinity, may explain this finding.

The easy leaching of boron from wood preservation formulations has limited the use of this highly active fungicide. The recently discovered adduct with flavonoids allows boron to be retained for longer periods of time within wood and consequently to extend its life. Two different leaching treatments were compared, and the fungal and termite decay were examined. The biological tests showed extremely high resistance of the leached samples against both fungus (Coriolus Versicolor and Coniophora Puteana) and termites (Reticulitermes Santonensis). The retention of 2.5 kg/m³ was determined as the threshold of efficacy of boron in flavonoid-based wood preservative. Furthermore, solid state 13C-NMR analysis of the tannin resin indicated that boron can be covalently fixed to the tannin-hexamine network.