Eco-Friendly Wood Composites: Design, Characterization and Applications II

A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Biomacromolecules, Biobased and Biodegradable Polymers".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 December 2023) | Viewed by 4915

Special Issue Editors


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Department of Mechanical Wood Technology, Faculty of Forest Industry, University of Forestry, 1797 Sofia, Bulgaria
Interests: wood and wood-based composites; eco-friendly wood-based composites; lignocellulosic composites; wood technology; wood sciences; bio-based adhesives; advanced formaldehyde-based wood adhesives; formaldehyde emission; formaldehyde scavengers; recyclable materials; sustainability; bioeconomy
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Faculty of Forest Industry, University of Forestry, 1797 Sofia, Bulgaria
Interests: wood-based panels; fiberboards; lignocellulosic composites; eco-friendly wood-based composites; bio-based adhesives; lignin; lignosulfonate
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Department of Wood Industry, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA Pahang Branch Campus Jengka, Bandar Tun Razak 26400, Pahang, Malaysia
Interests: wood composites; wood treatments; wood adhesives; wood modification; polymers
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Guest Editor
Research Center for Biomaterials, National Research and Innovation Agency, Bogor, West Java 16911, Indonesia
Interests: wood adhesives; wood-based panels; wood adhesion; forest products technology; wood science and technology; polymer composites
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Traditional wood composites are produced with synthetic, formaldehyde-based adhesives, commonly made from fossil-derived constituents, such as urea, phenol, melamine, etc. Along with their undisputable advantages, these adhesives are characterized by certain problems, connected with the emission of hazardous volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including free formaldehyde emission from the finished wood composites, which is carcinogenic to humans and harmful to the environment. The growing environmental concerns, connected with the adoption of circular economy principles, and the new, stricter legislative requirements for the emission of harmful VOCs, e.g., free formaldehyde, from wood composites, have posed new challenges to researchers and industrial practice, related to the development of sustainable, ecofriendly wood composites, optimization of the available lignocellulosic raw materials, and use of alternative resources. The harmful formaldehyde release from wood composites can be reduced by adding formaldehyde scavengers to conventional adhesive systems, by surface treatment of finished wood composites, or by using novel bio-based wood adhesives as environmentally friendly alternatives to traditional thermosetting resins. Another alternative to the use of synthetic formaldehyde-based adhesives is the manufacture of binderless wood composites since wood is a natural polymer material which is rich in lignocellulosic compounds such as cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin.

This Special Issue on “Ecofriendly Wood Composites: Design, Characterization and Applications” is aimed at collecting high-quality original research and review articles on topics including (but not limited to) the latest approaches in the development of ecofriendly wood composites; sustainable, bio-based wood adhesives; approaches to reduce formaldehyde emission from wood composites; binderless wood composites; wood plastic composites (WPC); advanced processes for recycling wood-based composites; thermal and chemical technologies for enhanced protection of wood and wood composites; application of nanomaterials to wood composites; valorization of bark for value-added chemicals and production of wood composites; non-wood lignocellulosic composites; advanced functionalities and application of wood composites.

We strongly encourage contributions from wood scientists and experts from all related fields in the form of original research works or review articles.

Prof. Dr. Petar Antov
Dr. Viktor Savov
Dr. Seng Hua Lee
Dr. Muhammad Adly Rahandi Lubis
Guest Editors

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

  • ecofriendly wood composites
  • bio-based wood adhesives
  • advanced formaldehyde-based wood adhesives
  • binderless wood composites
  • biopolymer composites
  • lignocellulosic composites
  • reinforced composite structures
  • wood plastic composites
  • formaldehyde scavengers
  • wood modification
  • nanotechnology and nanomaterials in wood composites

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 4836 KiB  
Article
Effect of Glue Spread on Bonding Strength, Delamination, and Wood Failure of Jabon Wood-Based Cross-Laminated Timber Using Cold-Setting Melamine-Based Adhesive
by Yusup Amin, Renaldi Purnomo Adji, Muhammad Adly Rahandi Lubis, Naresworo Nugroho, Effendi Tri Bahtiar, Wahyu Dwianto and Lina Karlinasari
Polymers 2023, 15(10), 2349; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym15102349 - 17 May 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2041
Abstract
Cross-laminated timber (CLT) has become a popular engineered wood product due to its innovative properties and rapid development, which involves the use of various wood species and adhesives. This study aimed to assess the effect of glue application on the bonding strength, delamination, [...] Read more.
Cross-laminated timber (CLT) has become a popular engineered wood product due to its innovative properties and rapid development, which involves the use of various wood species and adhesives. This study aimed to assess the effect of glue application on the bonding strength, delamination, and wood failure of CLT made from jabon wood and bonded with a cold-setting melamine-based adhesive at three different rates: 250, 280, and 300 g/m2. The adhesive was composed of melamine–formaldehyde (MF) by adding 5% citric acid, 3% polymeric 4,4-methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (pMDI), and 10% wheat flour. Adding these ingredients increased the adhesive viscosity and decreased the gelation time. The CLT samples, made using cold pressing in the melamine-based adhesive at a pressure of 1.0 MPa for 2 h, were evaluated as per the standard EN 16531:2021. The results revealed that a higher glue spread resulted in a greater bonding strength, lower delamination, and a higher wood failure. The glue spread was shown to have a more significant influence on wood failure compared with delamination and the bonding strength. The application of 300 g/m2 glue spread (MF-1) on the jabon CLT led to a product that met the standard requirements. The use of modified MF in cold-setting adhesive produced a potential product that could be a feasible option for future CLT production in terms of its lower heat energy consumption. Full article
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17 pages, 3641 KiB  
Article
Green Phenolic Resins from Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) Phenolated Lignin and Bio-Oil as Phenol Substitutes for Bonding Plywood
by Kah Yen Lim, Tengku Arisyah Tengku Yasim-Anuar, Nur Sharmila Sharip, Farhana Aziz Ujang, Hazwani Husin, Hidayah Ariffin, Paridah Md Tahir, Xinping Li, Seng Hua Lee and Mohd Termizi Yusof
Polymers 2023, 15(5), 1258; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym15051258 - 01 Mar 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1812
Abstract
Lignin is a natural biopolymer with a complex three-dimensional network and it is rich in phenol, making it a good candidate for the production of bio-based polyphenol material. This study attempts to characterize the properties of green phenol-formaldehyde (PF) resins produced through phenol [...] Read more.
Lignin is a natural biopolymer with a complex three-dimensional network and it is rich in phenol, making it a good candidate for the production of bio-based polyphenol material. This study attempts to characterize the properties of green phenol-formaldehyde (PF) resins produced through phenol substitution by the phenolated lignin (PL) and bio-oil (BO), extracted from oil palm empty fruit bunch black liquor. Mixtures of PF with varied substitution rates of PL and BO were prepared by heating a mixture of phenol–phenol substitute with 30 wt.% NaOH and 80% formaldehyde solution at 94 °C for 15 min. After that, the temperature was reduced to 80 °C before the remaining 20% formaldehyde solution was added. The reaction was carried out by heating the mixture to 94 °C once more, holding it for 25 min, and then rapidly lowering the temperature to 60 °C, to produce the PL−PF or BO−PF resins. The modified resins were then tested for pH, viscosity, solid content, FTIR, and TGA. Results revealed that the substitution of 5% PL into PF resins is enough to improve its physical properties. The PL−PF resin production process was also deemed environmentally beneficial, as it met 7 of the 8 Green Chemistry Principle evaluation criteria. Full article
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