Effect of thermal treatment on the chemical composition and mechanical properties of birch and aspen

By Duygu Kocaefe, S. Poncsák, Y. Boluk. BioResources, 2008

336 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The high temperature treatment of wood is one of the alternatives to chemical treatment. During this process, the wood is heated to higher temperatures than those of conventional drying. The wood structure changes due to decomposition of hemicelluloses, ramification of lignin, and crystallization of cellulose. The wood becomes less hygroscopic. These changes improve the dimensional stability of wood, increase its resistance to micro-organisms, darken its color, and modify its hardness. However, wood also might loose some of its elasticity. Consequently, the heat treatment conditions have to be optimized. Therefore, it is important to understand the transformation of the chemical structure of wood caused by the treatment. In this study, the modification of the surface composition of the wood was followed with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and inverse gas chromatography (IGC) under different experimental conditions. The effect of maximum treatment temperatures on the chemical composition of Canadian birch and aspen as well as the correlations between their chemical transformation and different mechanical properties are presented. FTIR analysis results showed that the heat treatment affected the chemical composition of birch more compared to that of aspen. The results of IGC tests illustrated that the surfaces of the aspen and birch became more basic with heat treatment. The mechanical properties were affected by degradation of hemicellulose, ramification of lignin and cellulose crystallization.

Subfields: Biomedical Engineering, Building and Construction, Spectroscopy

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/18538bcc585dff34efa08bd6f244f85d20a100c3

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Citations in the corpus

Chemical changes of heat treated pine and eucalypt wood monitored by FTIR (2013, methodology): “For eucalypt wood (Figures 3, 5 and 7) the band at 1245 cm-1, decreased in height but broadened which once again confirms the existence of a more condensed structure (Windeisen et al. 2007, Kocaefe et al. 2008b).”
Thermal treatment of wood using vegetable oils: A review (2018, background): “The slight increase in MOE under milder treatment temperature can be explained by degradation of amorphous cellulose content and increase in the relative crystallinity [91].”
Wood modification by heat treatment: a review. (2009, background): “Kocaefe et al. (2008b) studied the characteristics of the dynamic wetting of white ash (Fraxinus americana) and soft maple (Acer rubrum) and concluded that the contact angle increased significantly and the advancing contact angles of a water drop were higher for heat-treated than for untreated wood.”
Control of wood thermal treatment and its effects on decay resistance: a review (2016, neutral): “Although the surface hardness of the heat treated wood is improved, its other mechanical properties, such as bending and compression strengths, stiffness and shear strength, are considerably weakened according to thermal process conditions and treatment intensities (Kocaefe et al. 2008; Candelier et”
Study of the degradation behavior of heat-treated jack pine (Pinus banksiana) under artificial sunlight irradiation (2012, background): “Table 2 Characteristic bands of IR absorption spectra in wood Wavenumber (cm-1) Functional Group Assignment 3500-3420 -OH Present in water and three wood polymer components [45, 60, 70] 2900 C-H, -CH2- Stretching in methyl and methylene group, Hydrocarbon chains[45, 60] 1740-1730 -COOH (C=O) free ca”