Longitudinal hardness and Young's modulus of spruce tracheid secondary walls using nanoindentation technique

Summary Using a mechanical properties microprobe, measurements of hardness and elastic modulus of tracheid walls in the longitudinal direction of spruce wood were obtained by continuously measuring force and displacement as a diamond indenter impressed a cell wall. Maximum mechanical properties were found at the edges of the walls of angular shaped tracheids. Both the hardness and elastic modulus of latewood cell walls were higher than cell walls in the earlywood. The high spatial resolution of this new concept of mechanical testing allows a direct comparison with ultrastructural and microchemical parameters of lignified cells which opens a wider area of applications for the understanding of intrinsic wood properties.This work was conducted while the senior author was a Visiting Scientist at the Oak Ridge National Lab, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA partly with joint fundings from the Austrian Science Foundation (Schrödinger scholarship J799-BIO)