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Polymers
Special Issues
Degradation of Wood-Based Materials II
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Degradation of Wood-Based Materials II

A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Circular and Green Polymer Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2022) | Viewed by 5465

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Jyh-Horng Wu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Forestry, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan
Interests: bio-based composites; wood modification; functional biomaterials; natural products
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Wood is a versatile, renewable, basic resource and a natural biopolymer that is widely used in different applications, and it remains indispensable to everyday human life and culture because of its aesthetic appearance and characteristic properties. In recent years, various wood-based materials have been developed and successfully introduced into the engineering and construction marketplace. However, these lignocellulosic materials have a few undesirable properties, such as photodegradation, combustibility, and susceptibility to biological degradation. These drawbacks have limited their utilization in a variety of applications. To overcome these issues, several physical and chemical approaches have been used to enhance the thermal stability, photostability, and biological and weathering resistance of wood-based materials. Their related mechanisms have also been studied.

The scope of this Special Issue is to cover all the aspects related to the degradation of wood-based materials. Authors are welcome to submit their latest research on this topic in the form of original research or review articles.

Prof. Dr. Jyh-Horng Wu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • degradation
  • wood-based materials
  • lignocellulosic materials
  • photodegradation
  • biological degradation
  • weathering
  • durability

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 17312 KiB  
Article
Leachability and Anti-Mold Efficiency of Nanosilver on Poplar Wood Surface
by Xiaohan Dai, Yanran Qi, Hongxue Luo, Zaixin He, Lianxiang Wei, Xiaoying Dong, Xingxia Ma, De-Quan Yang and Yongfeng Li
Polymers 2022, 14(5), 884; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym14050884 - 23 Feb 2022
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2333
Abstract
Water-based antimicrobial agents, used in environmentally friendly applications, are widely used in wood protection industries. Furthermore, nanomaterials as antimicrobial agents, because of their biocidal component, huge specific surface area, and unique nanoscale effect, have attracted attention in the field of biodurability. We employed [...] Read more.
Water-based antimicrobial agents, used in environmentally friendly applications, are widely used in wood protection industries. Furthermore, nanomaterials as antimicrobial agents, because of their biocidal component, huge specific surface area, and unique nanoscale effect, have attracted attention in the field of biodurability. We employed aqueous dispersed nano-silver with a diameter of 10 nm~20 nm to treat poplar wood and evaluated its leaching resistance and anti-mold effect on the wood surface. The results revealed that the higher the retention of the nano-silver, the stronger the protection efficiency of the wood surface against three molds (Aspergillus niger V. Tiegh, Penicillium citrinum Thom, and Trichoderma viride Pers. ex Fr); and the leachability of the nano-silver presented a slowly growing trend with the increase in the retention. When the wood surface attained a silver retention of 0.324 g·m−2, its anti-mold efficiency against Aspergillus niger V. Tiegh, Penicillium citrinum Thom, and Trichoderma viride Pers. ex Fr reached 80, 75, and 80%, respectively, which achieved or even exceeded the required standard value of effective mold inhibition (75%). Notably, the nano-silver leaching rate at this retention attained merely 4.75 %. The nanoparticle, well distributed on a wood surface, may promote sufficient contact with fungi as well as strong interaction with wood cell wall components, which probably contributed to the effective anti-mold efficiency and the leaching resistance. This study provided positive evidence for the anti-mold effect of nano-silver on wood surface. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Degradation of Wood-Based Materials II)
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14 pages, 2753 KiB  
Article
Comparison of the Physico-Mechanical and Weathering Properties of Wood–Plastic Composites Made of Wood Fibers from Discarded Parts of Pomelo Trees and Polypropylene
by Ke-Chang Hung, Wen-Chao Chang, Jin-Wei Xu, Tung-Lin Wu and Jyh-Horng Wu
Polymers 2021, 13(16), 2681; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13162681 - 11 Aug 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2138
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to compare the characteristics of wood–plastic composites (WPCs) made of polypropylene (PP) and wood fibers (WFs) from discarded stems, branches, and roots of pomelo trees. The results show that the WPCs made of 30–60 mesh WFs from [...] Read more.
The purpose of this study is to compare the characteristics of wood–plastic composites (WPCs) made of polypropylene (PP) and wood fibers (WFs) from discarded stems, branches, and roots of pomelo trees. The results show that the WPCs made of 30–60 mesh WFs from stems have better physical, flexural, and tensile properties than other WPCs. However, the flexural strengths of all WPCs are not only comparable to those of commercial wood–PP composites but also meet the strength requirements of the Chinese National Standard for exterior WPCs. In addition, the color change of WPCs that contained branch WFs was lower than that of WPCs that contained stem or root WFs during the initial stage of the accelerated weathering test, but the surface color parameters of all WPCs were very similar after 500 h of xenon arc accelerated weathering. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) micrographs showed many cracks on the surfaces of WPCs after accelerated weathering for 500 h, but their flexural modulus of rupture (MOR) and modulus of elasticity (MOE) values did not differ significantly during weathering. Thus, all the discarded parts of pomelo trees can be used to manufacture WPCs, and there were no significant differences in their weathering properties during 500 h of xenon arc accelerated weathering. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Degradation of Wood-Based Materials II)
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13 pages, 2685 KiB  
Article
A Comparative Study on Suitability of Model-Free and Model-Fitting Kinetic Methods to Non-Isothermal Degradation of Lignocellulosic Materials
by Hamayoun Mahmood, Ahmad Shakeel, Ammar Abdullah, Muhammad Ilyas Khan and Muhammad Moniruzzaman
Polymers 2021, 13(15), 2504; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13152504 - 29 Jul 2021
Cited by 27 | Viewed by 2365
Abstract
The thermal kinetic modeling is crucial for development of sustainable processes where lignocellulosic fuels are a part of chemical system and their thermal degradation eventuates. In this paper, thermal decomposition of three lignocellulosic materials (bagasse, rice husk, and wheat straw) was obtained by [...] Read more.
The thermal kinetic modeling is crucial for development of sustainable processes where lignocellulosic fuels are a part of chemical system and their thermal degradation eventuates. In this paper, thermal decomposition of three lignocellulosic materials (bagasse, rice husk, and wheat straw) was obtained by the thermogravimetric (TG) technique and kinetics was analyzed by both model-fitting and isoconversional (model-free) methods to compare their effectiveness. Two models selected from each class include Arrhenius and Coats–Redfern (model-fitting), and Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose (KAS) and Flynn–Wall–Ozawa (FWO) (model-free). The formal model-fitting approach simulating the thermal decomposition of solids by assuming a fixed mechanism was found to be unduly facile. However, activation energy (E) values calculated from two model-fitting techniques were considerably different from each other with a percentage difference in the range of 1.36% to 7.65%. Particularly, both model-fitting methods predicted different reaction mechanism for thermal disintegration of lignocellulosic materials (two-dimensional diffusion (D2) by Arrhenius and one-dimensional diffusion (D1) by Coat–Redfern method). Conversely, the model-free routine offers a transformation of mechanism and activation energy values throughout reaction and is, therefore, more authentic to illustrate the complexity of thermal disintegration of lignocellulosic particles. Based on the model-free kinetic analysis, the lignocellulosic materials may be devised in following order of activation energy: rice husk > bagasse > wheat straw, by both KAS and FWO methods with a percentage difference no more than 0.84% for fractional conversion up to 0.7. Isoconversional approach could be recommended as more realistic and precise for modeling non-isothermal kinetics of lignocellulosic residues compared to model-fitting approach. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Degradation of Wood-Based Materials II)
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