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Softening of wood polymers induced by moisture studied by dynamic FTIR spectroscopy
Author(s) -
Åkerholm Margaretha,
Salmén Lennart
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.21133
Subject(s) - softening , lignin , pulp (tooth) , materials science , polymer , xylan , fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , composite material , viscoelasticity , polysaccharide , glucomannan , hemicellulose , cell wall , chemical engineering , chemistry , organic chemistry , medicine , biochemistry , pathology , engineering
The softening of the wood polymers is very important in the utilization of wood fiber products. To better to understand how the hemicelluloses interact with the other wood polymers in the fiber ultrastructure and contribute to the mechanical properties of the wood, their softening inside the cell wall of pulp fibers was studied by dynamic FTIR spectroscopy under humid conditions. The two hemicelluloses of spruce, glucomannan and xylan, exhibited different softening behaviors indicating a different organization of the two hemicelluloses inside the cell wall. Lignin in mechanical pulp showed a more viscoelastic behavior already under dry conditions than the polysaccharides of the cell wall. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 94: 2032–2040, 2004