WOOD RESEARCH Volume 68, Number 4, 2023
Zhitao Lei, Jie Liu, Zhiyuan Zhang, Xuesong Zhao, and Qi Li

Study on preparation and properties of Anti-Ultraviolet Aging Wood-Plastic Composites

The degradable wood-plastic composites (WPC) were prepared by compression molding in this study. Polylactic acid (PLA), poly (butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) and salix powder were used as the main raw materials and nano-titanium dioxide (nano-TiO2) was used as anti-ultraviolet filler. The results show that when the addition amount of nano-TIO2 was 2%, the static bending strength and elastic modulus of WPC reach 41.88 MPa and 3730 MPa, respectively, which can meet the commercial application of WPC in building formwork. At this time, the composite material has a better effect of absorbing and reflecting ultraviolet light. The static bending strength, elastic modulus, tensile strength and impact strength of WPC were reduced by 68.3%, 61.5%, 51.9% and 57.4%, respectively. The mass loss rate and water absorption were 6.1% and 22.6%, respectively, that shows its good degradation performance. This study provides a low-cost and simple method for the design of anti-UV aging, high-performance and degradable WPC, which has broad application prospects in packaging, construction and other fields.

WOOD RESEARCH Volume 67, Number 6, 2022
Peter Godovčin, JOZEF MARTINKA, PETER RANTUCH, Martina Hladová, JURAJ KOPÚNEK, Mária Otajovičová, and Mária Zuzana Bednáriková

Impact of temperature and ultraviolet radiation on changes of colour of fir and spruce wood

This study deals with the investigation of impact of temperature and ultraviolet (UV) radiation on spruce wood (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.) and fir wood (Abies alba Mill.) colour changes. Samples of investigated woods species were loaded by temperatures of 110, 130, and 150°C and UV radiation (with 253.7 nm wavelength and 40 W m-2 intensity) during 72, 168, 336 and 672 hours. Colour changes were evaluated in the CIE Lab colour space. The neural network for prediction of both colour coordinates and total colour difference of spruce and fir wood was trained by data regarding exposure conditions (temperature, UV radiation and time) and by obtained results. Coefficient of determination (R2) of the neural network was above 0.99 for training, validation and testing. Average colour coordinates (± standard deviation) of the spruce and fir wood before exposure were L* = 80.08 ± 3.70, a* = 7.55 ± 2.13, b* = 21.56 ± 1.79, L* = 80.46 ± 1.91, a* = 6.84 ± 0.97, and b* = 18.90 ± 1.26, resp. Total colour differences after thermal loading were in the interval from ΔEab* = 3.76 ± 1.95 (spruce wood at 110°C) to ΔEab* = 45.37±1.46 (fir wood at 150°C). Total colour differences of both wood species exposed by UV radiation were approximately in intervals from ΔEab* = 12 to 13 (after 72 h) up to ΔEab* = 16 to 20 (after 168 to 672 h). Obtained results proven that both temperature and UV radiation have significant impact on the colour changes of the investigated woods.