Advances in Materials Science of Wood (PDF)

Volume is indexed by Thomson Reuters BCI (WoS).Wood, which always looks quite solid to the naked eye, actually possesses a very intricate and exquisite structure; developed by Nature primarily to fulfil the requirements of a growing tree. How well the structure satisfies the needs of a construction material as used by humans is quite another matter - so to speak. Besides being an important constructional material, wood is today also an important source of precursors for the medical and chemical compounds used by human beings. These, and many other aspects of wood, are topics which materials science attempts to elucidate. When wood is used as a constructional material, human interest normally focuses on xylem, the "e;woody"e; inner portion of the trunk of a tree. The outer sections of the tree, the bark and cambium, mainly interest humans for reasons other than constructional.As wood is an organic polymer-matrix composite, the study of wood might be assumed to be the province mainly of polymer scientists. This is not true however: materials scientists working on polymers are almost absent from research into wood. The situation is actually quite odd; since wood offers plenty of ideas which would also be applicable to synthetic polymers and their composites. This situation is reflected by the contents of this publication.The present collection of papers describes some of the advances made in the study of the micro- and nano-structures comprising the xylemic portion of the tree trunk, their relationship to deformation and other mechanical properties, plus the mechanical and chemical properties as seen at a more macroscopic scale. As the papers concentrate on very specific and limited areas of knowledge, the necessary background information concerning the topics covered by the papers is also provided in order to assist those readers who are familiar with them.As a result, this volume presents a unique introduction to the understanding and application of constructional wood products.Kettunen (materials science, Tampere U. of Technology, Finland) presents six invited papers demonstrating recent research advances in the materials science of wood. The papers discuss the significance, analysis, and potential of utilization of extractives from wood; synchrotron radiation x-ray scattering techniques for studying the micro- and nanostructure of wood and their relation to the mechanical properties; changes in nanostructure of wood cell wall during deformation; monotonic strength properties of Siberian yellow pine; chemical characterization and comparison of thermally treated beech and ash wood; and softwood degradation after being several thousand years in shore front mud. Since the topics are all specialized, an opening discussion of the common background of the topics is also presented.