A polyethylene/wood-fiber composite loaded with nano-ZnO was prepared by a facile hot-press method and was used for the photocatalytic degradation of organic compounds as well as for microwave absorption. ZnO nanoparticles with an average size of 29 nm and polyethylene (PE) powders were dispersed on the wood fibers' surface through a viscous cationic polyacrylamide (CPAM) solution. The reflecti...

Wood specific gravity (WSG) is a strong predictor of tree performance across environmental gradients. Yet it remains unclear how anatomical elements linked to different wood functions contribute to variation in WSG in branches and roots across tropical forests. We examined WSG and wood anatomy in white sand, clay terra firme and seasonally flooded forests in French Guiana, spanning broad enviro...

wood is a porous three dimensional, hydroscopic, viscoelastic, anisotropic bio-polymer composite composed of an interconnecting matrix of cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin with minor amounts of inorganic elements and organic extractives. some, but not all, of the cell wall polymer hydroxyl groups are accessible to moisture and these accessible hydroxyls form hydrogen bonds with water. as the...

Cellulose fibers, cell wall fragments and cellulose microfibrils can be used as reinforced materials for biocomposite manufacture. Understanding nano-mechanical properties of those materials will be very useful to show their full theoretical potential. Nanoindentation testing is a technique that determines the mechanical properties of a material in the sub-micron/nano scale. The test involves p...

The structure of wood based medium density fiberboard (MDF) has been studied using synchrotron radiationbased x-ray microtomography (SRμCT.) Fully automated 3D segmentation and analysis routines have been developed in order to gain information about individual fibers, the distribution of the fiber material, fiber orientation, fiber surfaces and size and location of contact areas. Representative...

Growth and wood properties of 20-year-old Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) trees were studied for 6 years in 16 closed chambers providing a factorial combination of two temperature regimes (ambient and elevated) and two carbon dioxide concentrations ([CO2]) (ambient and twice ambient). The elevation of temperature corresponded to the predicted effect at the site of a doubling in atmospheric [CO...

This work investigates the feasibility of using recycled high density polyethylene (rHDPE), recycled polypropylene (rPP) and old newsprint fiber (ONP) to manufacture fiber reinforced composites. The boards were made through air-forming and hot press. The effects of the fiber loading and coupling agent content on tensile, flexural, internal bond properties and water absorption and thickness swel...

The present paper deals with within ramet radial, intraand inter-clonal variations in the wood element’s dimensions and specific gravity of 10 clones of Populus deltoides Bartr. ex Marsh. The growth parameters namely ramet height and DBH were also considered for the study. Study material was collected from the 10 clones of Populus deltoids raised by WIMCO Plantations Ltd. at Rudrapur (Udhamsing...

The thermal properties of wood in the green state have been determined by the transient plane source (TPS) technique. Data are presented on thermal conductivity ( λ ), heat capacity ( C ), and thermal diffusivity ( κ ) at moisture contents (MCs) above the fiber saturation point, which are based on measurements using the HotDisk ® apparatus. Four wood species (Douglas fir, beech, birch, and spru...