FTIR spectroscopic studies of the reactions of wood and of lignin model compounds with inorganic agents

Summary Certain inorganic agents, particularly chromium trioxide, are known to be able to protect wood against weathering. In this paper, the reactions of chromium trioxide, and of some chromic and ferric salts, with wood and with the lignin model compound, guaiacol and derivative, calcium lignosulphonate, have been examined by FTIR reflectance and transmission spectroscopy. Reactions, to different degrees, were obtained with chromium trioxide, and the ferric salts but no reactions with the chromic salts. Intensity changes of bands in the spectra, particularly those near 1,505 and 1,595 cm^-1, indicate that reaction of the agents with wood involves the aromatic rings of lignin.This work forms part of a wider project in which the author is engaged with Drs K. J. Schmalzl and P. D. Evans whom he thanks for their help with various aspects     

碱处理兴安落叶松材改性的研究

采用１％ＮａＨＣＯ＿３水溶液对兴安落叶松（Ｌａｒｉｘｇｍｅｌｉｎｉ）木材进行了处理，并用红外光谱、扫描电子显微镜和化学分析等方法对处理前后木材的尺寸稳定性、吸湿性、官能团和超微构造的变化进行了比较和分析。从而确定影响兴安落叶松木材尺寸稳定性的主要因素。本究研为兴安落叶松木材的改性和利用提供了理论依据。     

Physiological effects of wood on humans: a review

It is empirically known that wood can cause a comfort enhancement effect in humans. On the other hand, not enough scientific knowledge based on evidence-based research is available on this subject. However, data using physiological indices have increasingly accumulated in recent years. This review provides an overview of the current situation for peer-reviewed reports related to the physiological effects of wood. We reviewed reports that elucidated the effects of wood-derived stimulations on the olfactory, visual, auditory, and tactile sensations using physiological indices such as brain activity (e.g., near-infrared spectroscopy) and autonomic nervous activity (e.g., heart rate variability and blood pressure). It became clear that many studies were limited by (1) a small number of participants, mostly aged in their 20s; (2) use of only a single stimulus (e.g., only olfactory or only visual), or (3) an incomplete experimental design. In addition, this review examined the field of forest therapy, for which there is abundant research. Further study is needed to elucidate the physiological effects of wood on humans.     

木材保护剂分散体系及其液体渗透性研究概述

木材保护是节约木材资源、提高木材使用质量的重要手段。为了实现长期、高效的木材保护,通常需要对木材进行整体浸渍处理,即通过木材的多孔结构将包含有效成分的木材保护剂分散体系引入木材内部。随着技术的发展,出现了各种不同类型的木材保护剂分散体系,笔者介绍了其分类以及各类型的定义和基本特性,在此基础上分别对溶液、微乳液、乳浊液、溶胶、悬浊液型木材保护剂分散体系在木材中的液体渗透性方面研究进行了概述。对于水溶型木材保护剂而言,木材构造、木材抽提物及处理药剂的性质是影响其液体渗透性的主要因素;油溶型木材保护剂的液体渗透性在很大程度上取决于其溶剂的性质,轻油溶剂比重油溶剂的渗透性更优;乳浊液的液滴粒径与木材纹孔膜上孔隙尺寸相当,因此其渗透性与液滴粒径、树种密切相关;微乳液比乳浊液更易渗透,甚至可部分进入木材细胞壁;溶胶形成胶体粒子后在木材内的渗透与木材构造、胶体粒子粒径及p H等相关;悬浊液型木材保护剂由于粒径较大,在木材内的渗透性不佳,分布也不均匀。分析了该领域现有研究的不足,提出应系统、深入地开展研究,在此基础上改善分散体系在木材中的液体渗透性,并为木材保护分散体系的开发提供指导。     

Physiological basis of wood production: A review

The theoretical background to wood production is outlined and the factual background is given by reviewing measured rates of wood production. It is recommended that differences in wood production be analysed, not by statistical methods, traditional growth analysis or by comprehensive models, but by using a ‘light use analysis’, where wood production is determined by (1) the amount of light intercepted by the canopy, (2) the light use efficiency, net of respiration, (3) the proportion of assimilates partitioned to wood, and (4) mortality losses. These four components are discussed.     

Potential use of wood ash in South African forestry: a review

The use of landfills as a disposal method for wood ash is costly, environmentally detrimental and is pitted against increasingly stern environmental regulations. Literature has shown that wood ash has the potential to be used as a forest fertiliser and the effects tend to be highly site-specific. Wood ash contains a combination of carbonates, hydroxides and other calcium-containing minerals that are responsible for the liming effect observed following application to soils. In addition, it contains significant magnesium and potassium concentrations, but little nitrogen and sulphur. The phosphorus availability of wood ash varies considerably and in effect can limit soil phosphorus uptake and may affect subsequent nutrient balance in plants. Short-rotation forestry practices and whole-tree harvest systems can induce periodic or persisting nutrient deficiencies and acidify the soil. This may affect the ability of a site to sustain adequate nutrient levels over successive rotations. Utilising wood ash as a soil amendment can offset or correct some nutrient deficiencies and imbalances induced by intensively managed plantation forests. This review covers the international literature on ash applications to forest land, including the effect of ash-beds remaining after slash burning (as a useful analogy for the effects of wood ash on soil properties and tree growth). The results show that ash applications to forest land can be done safely and can potentially stimulate microbial activity and improve pine and eucalypt growth. Safe ash application rates should be determined after consideration of (1) soil buffer capacity and ash alkalinity (expressed as calcium carbonate equivalence) and (2) an evaluation of the concentrations of heavy metals existing in soils and present in the available ash, particularly from cadmium, chromium, lead and arsenic.     

Chemical modification of wood: A short review

Abstract

For most markets for wood, it is used without any treatments or modifications. When wood is used in adverse environments, it may be treated with chemicals to help prevent decay, improve water resistance, reduce the effects of ultraviolet radiation or increase fire retardancy. Many of these treatments involve the use of toxic or corrosive chemicals that can harm the environment. Chemical modification of wood provides an alternative by providing protection against water, decay, UV and thermal degradations by bonding chemicals to the cell wall polymers that do not leach out. Dimensional stability and decay resistance are two major properties that can be greatly improved by simple reactions with acetic anhydride.     

Chemical modification of wood: A short review

For most markets for wood, it is used without any treatments or modifications. When wood is used in adverse environments, it may be treated with chemicals to help prevent decay, improve water resistance, reduce the effects of ultraviolet radiation or increase fire retardancy. Many of these treatments involve the use of toxic or corrosive chemicals that can harm the environment. Chemical modification of wood provides an alternative by providing protection against water, decay, UV and thermal degradations by bonding chemicals to the cell wall polymers that do not leach out. Dimensional stability and decay resistance are two major properties that can be greatly improved by simple reactions with acetic anhydride.     

红外光谱技术在我国木材科学领域的应用研究进展

红外光谱法是分析化合物结构与化学组成的重要手段,该文综述了中红外与近红外光谱技术在木材物理与化学性质测试、木材种属分类与鉴定、木材加工领域、林木病虫害预测等木材科学相关方向的国内最新研究进展。今后应在推广红外光谱技术实践应用、方法标准提升、多技术联用等方面开展深入研究。     

Stand,stem and log segregation based on wood properties: a review

There are many log and wood properties of interest to wood processors. There is also high variability in important attributes between and within growing regions and between and within individual stems which influence financial returns to wood processors. This review summarises recent studies of segregation technologies and techniques which have shown that:

• regional or stand level attribute models will facilitate a coarse level of segregation but not account well for the between and within stem variation;

• many tools and techniques are available for segregating wood based on internal properties but few have been implemented commercially. Some are better suited for application in mills than in forests;

• the benefits of segregating stands, stems and logs based on wood properties are not clear due to high variability in wood properties, poor market signals (in terms of price) for wood with superior properties, and poor understanding of the costs across the value chain; and

• most of the existing economic models tend to look at the economics of segregation from the perspective of a single participant in the value chain, e.g. a structural mill or a central processing yard. Only a few models look across the value chain and these have limitations often poorly representing some participants in the value chain.

     

Mitigating swine odor with strategically designed shelterbelt systems: a review

Recent reports clearly indicate that odor emitted from concentrated livestock production facilities in the Midwest of the US is a significant social problem that negatively impacts rural and state economies, human health, and the quality of rural life. A potential incremental approach to dealing with livestock odor is the use of shelterbelts arranged in strategic designs near and within livestock facilities. This review outlines the various ways that shelterbelts can be effective technology which bio-physically mitigates odor thereby reducing social conflict from odor nuisance. The biophysical potential of shelterbelts to mitigate livestock odor arises from the tree/shrub impacts on the central characteristics and physical behavior of livestock odor. As the majority of odors generated in animal facilities that are detectable at appreciable distances travel as particulates, there is compelling evidence that shelterbelts can ameliorate livestock odor by impeding the movement of these particulates. Because the odor source is near the ground and the tendency of livestock odor is to travel along the ground, shelterbelts of modest heights (i.e. 20–30 ft) may be ideal for odor interception, disruption, and dilution. Shelterbelts can be adapted to fit almost any production situation. Depending on shelterbelt health, these trees can provide long term, year round odor interception, with increasing effectiveness over time. Additionally, more is becoming known about how landscape aesthetics affect how people might perceive livestock odor, suggesting that landscape elements such as shelterbelts can lead to aesthetic improvements and perhaps more positive opinions of livestock odor and the farm systems that create them.     

The reaction of guaiacol with iron III and chromium VI compounds as a model for wood surface modification

Summary The reaction of ferric chloride with the lignin model guaiacol affords primarily a complex mixture of coupled guaiacol oligomers. Major components were the symmetrical carbon-carbon coupled dimer 3,3-dimethoxy-[1,1-biphenyl]-4,4diol and the trimer 3,3,5-trimethoxy-[1,1:3,1-terphenyl]-4,4,4-triol which were isolated by preparative HPLC and characterized by ¹HNMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. An unstable component believed to be a 4,4-diphenoquinone derived from the trimer was also prominent. The reaction of chromium trioxide with guaiacol yields the same dimer, trimer and diphenoquinone as well as 2-methoxy-p-benzoquinone. The major product with chromium trioxide, however, is an inert, highly insoluble polymer which was shown by degradation to contain guaiacol oligomers bound or crosslinked by hydroxylated chromium species. Magnetic susceptibility measurements clearly indicated that the valency of chromium in the polymer was + 3. It is postulated that similar complexes formed from phenolic lignin units are responsible for the weather resistance of chromium trioxide treated wood surfaces. In a broader context this study is relevant to the fixation of hexavalent chromium from a range of widely used wood preservative formulations.The authors wish to thank the following: Tom Syers (CSIRO Division of Forest Products) for technical assistance, Mary Reilly (CSIRO Division of Forest Products) for NMR spectral determinations and Ivan Vit (CSIRO Division of Chemicals and Polymers) for mass spectral determinations     

用无机纳米材料复合改性木材的机理研究进展

介绍了用无机纳米材料改性木材及所获复合材料体系的形成过程、复合机理等方面的研究进展。包括:木材-无机纳米复合材料纳米尺度的形貌、结构观测与表征,采用电镜技术、能谱技术进行其的组成和化学价态的表面分析,采用微区FTIR分析技术测定纳米粒子在该材料体系中的分布及与木材组分的结合状态,用波谱分析的方法,分析纳米粒子在木材组份中的固着机理。     

Volatile organic compounds from wood and their influences on museum artifact materials I. Differences in wood species and analyses of causal substances of deterioration

Wood is generally used as the interior material in museum storage rooms. Recently, however, the effects of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from wood on artifacts has become a topic of great concern. The VOCs from four species of wood (western red cedar, spruce, kiri, and sugi) and their effects on artifact materials (two types of metal, seven types of pigment) were investigated using a deterioration-accelerating test, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, X-ray diffraction analysis, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results suggested that the influences on artifact materials varied greatly with wood species, and depended on specific components such as hinokitiol or acetic acid rather than the amount of total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs). It is a very serious problem that of the four species of wood, western red cedar (rich in hinokitiol), which has been recommended as an interior material for museum storage rooms, showed the heaviest deterioration on metal samples, and only this type of wood discolored enpaku (white lead) and rokushou (malachite, verdigris). In such storage rooms, museum artifacts should be carefully monitored. When selecting an interior material for a storage room or studying methods of preventing deterioration, it is very important to consider fully the characteristics of wood VOCs, not only the amount of TVOC.Part of this paper was presented at the 24th (Tokyo, June 2002) and 25th (Kyoto, June 2003) Annual Meeting of the Japan Society for the Conservation of Cultural Property     

Variation in wood volatile compounds in a mixed oak stand: strong species and spatial differentiation in whisky-lactone content

The effect of species and ecological conditions on oak volatile extractive content was investigated in an evenaged (100 years) stand located in western France. The sample included a total of 286 trees (118 sessile, 158 pedunculate and 10 oaks with an intermediate morphology) growing in contrasted environments (plateau, intermediate slope, small valley). The main factor influencing oak extractives level is species. The effect of the local environment appears negligible. No correlation between ring width and volatile extractive content was found. Q. petraea is significantly richer than Q. robur in eugenol and whisky-lactone (10.8 vs. 0.6 μg/g). However, two groups of sessile oaks could be identified, one poor and one rich in whisky-lactone. Among the latter, either the cis or the trans stereoisomer was predominant, suggesting that their production is not independent. A strong spatial structure was detected for whisky-lactone (cis-, trans- and total whisky-lactone, for the two species combined but also for Q. petraea alone in the case of the cis isomer).     

Duration of load effects of solid wood: A review of methods and models

Abstract

Test methods for studying the effect of long-term loading on the load-carrying capacity of structural wood are discussed. The impact of sampling procedures on test results is investigated and is exemplified. It is concluded from this investigation that the sampling method has a significant impact on the test results. A number of mathematical models for estimation of the effect of load duration are also presented and brief outlines of the theoretical background for five categories of models are given. No attempt is made to compare the models in order to nominate the best model. Effort is, however, made to illustrate the futility of calibrating models against one type of test when the model is redundant to the test type.