The structure of wood is so compact that enzymes are too large to penetrate into the structure and thereby attack the wood components for modifications that can be valuable for various purposes. Here we present a pretreatment method based on traditional kraft pulping, which opens the wood structure, so that enzymes are able to attack the wood components. To study this kind of chemical pretreatm...

To explore the collapse of eucalyptus wood cells during the drying process, continuous and intermittent drying were carried out on Eucalyptus urophylla. The shrinkage throughout the intermittent drying process was less than that of continuous drying. According to observations of cells made using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), there was a large difference in the degree of cell collapse betw...

The present invention provides wood derivatives and composite materials prepared by first solvating a lignocellulosic material using an ionic liquid. The solvated lignocellulosic material can be derivatized to incorporate functional groups, particularly groups that facilitate later combination with polymer materials, including non-polymer polymers. The polymeric materials can be combined with t...

Composite panels using virgin and recycled high-density polyethylene (VHDPE and RHDPE) and five types of natural fibers including four rice straw components (i.e., rice husk, rice straw leaf, rice straw stem, and whole rice straw) and wood fiber as control were made by melt compounding and compression molding. Fiber characteristics and the influences of fiber type and loading rate on HDPE cryst...