• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.216-220
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• 2013

The phase separation in Wood Flour-Polymer Composite (WPC) was investigated and the reasons for change in mechanical properties with the content of wood flour were explored. The wood flour-polypropylene composite samples with different wood flour contents were prepared. From differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) thermograms of WPC samples, the trend of crystallinity and melting temperature ($T_m$) were analyzed. The crystallinity and melting temperature increased and then decreased as the content of wood flour increased. From these results, it was confirmed that at the low wood flour content the wood flours were dispersed into the polypropylene matrix but at the high wood flour content, the phase separation between polymer and wood flour phases appeared. The tensile strength of WPC samples was continuously decreased with the increase of wood flour content. At a low wood flour content, the low interfacial bonding and the decrease in crystallinity were the main reasons for the decrease in tensile strength with the increase of wood flour content. At a high wood flour content, the decrease in tensile strength resulted from the interfacial defects between the polymer and wood flour phases. The impact strength of the WPC sample showed the maximum behavior with the content of wood flour. At a low wood flour content, the impact strength was enhanced owing to the decrease in brittleness, which results from the decrease in crystallinity. At a high wood flour content, however, the impact strength decreased due to phase separation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.161.1-161.1
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• 2015

복합소재는 두가지 이상의 서로 다른 물질을 조합하여, 단일 물질이 가질 수 없는 뛰어난 특성을 가진 소재로 그 중 전기 전도성 복합소재는 일반적으로 폴리머와 전도성 필러의 혼합을 통해 만들어 전자파 차폐, 대전 방지 등의 목적으로 사용되고 있다. 종류에 따라 기존 금속 소재에 비해 가볍거나 탄성율이 높은 등의 장점이 있으나 필러나 레진에 따라 재활용에 어려움이 있으며 전도성 필러로 주로 쓰이는 카본블랙 등이 석유/천연가스 등의 한정적 자원으로부터 만들어짐에 따라 환경적인 이슈가 최근 부각되고 있다. 목재는 가장 널리 쓰이는 소재 중 하나로 재생 가능하며 친환경적인 특성으로 인해 더욱 다양한 분야로의 활용이 모색되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 목재 소재의 탄화를 통해 만들어진 탄화목분의 전도성 필러로의 적용가능성을 시험하고자 CBT 레진과 탄화목분 필러의 복합소재를 제작하였다. 탄화 목분 복합소재의 전도성은 20 wt% 필러 함량 기준 카본블랙 복합소재 전도도에 20%에 이르렀으며, 전도도의 향상을 위해 필러의 플라즈마 처리 시 복합소재의 전도도가 급격히 향상되어, 카본 블랙 복합소재 전도도의 3배에 이르렀다. 플라즈마 처리가 탄화목분 복합소재의 전도도향상에 미치는 영향을 분석하기 위해 micro-CT, TGA 분석을 수행하였으며, 플라즈마 처리 시 탄화 목분 필러가 일부 미분화 되어 복합소재의 전도도를 향상하는 것으로 나타났다. 이와 같이 탄화 목분의 전도성 복합소재 적용과, 탄화목분의 플라즈마 처리를 통해 친환경적일 뿐만아니라 전도도도 우수한 복합소재를 구현하였으며, 실험적으로 전도도 향상 메커니즘을 확인하였다.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.573-578
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• 2012

In general, most physical properties of wood/polyvinyl chloride (PVC) composites are lower than those of corresponding neat PVC resin because of poor interfacial adhesion between the hydrophilic wood flour and hydrophobic PVC. Therefore, in this study, we treated wood flour with three aminosilanes to improve wood/PVC interfacial adhesion strength, and eco-friendly wood/PVC/nanoclay composites were prepared by melt blending the aminosilane-treated wood flour, a heavy metal free PVC compound, and a type of nanoclay. The effects of treating wood flour with the aminosilanes and adding the nanoclay on the mechanical properties of the composites were investigated. Mechanical properties of the composites were investigated by universal testing machine (UTM), izod impact tester, dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA), and thermomechanical analyzer (TMA). The tensile properties of the composites with the aminosilane-treated wood flour were considerably higher than those of the composites with neat wood flour. Furthermore, a small amount of the nanoclay improved mechanical properties of the composites. The performance of the wood/PVC composites was considerably improved by using the aminosilane-treated wood flour and the nanoclay.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.757-767
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• 2015

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of moisture content and particle size of sawdust on the fuel characteristics of wood pellets produced with Mongolian oak (Quercus mongolica, QUM), red pine (Pinus densiflora, PID) and larch (Larix kaempferi, LAK) sawdust using a flat-die pelletizer. Prior to produce wood pellets, the sawdust was controlled to the moisture content of 8, 11, 12% and was screened to the particle size of 2 and 4 mesh. In the analysis of its chemical composition, QUM had a high ash content, and PID and LAK contained large amount of lignin. In case of the fuel characteristics, PID pellets had the lowest moisture content of pellets (P-MC), and LAR pellets was found to have the highest bilk density (BD) and durability (DU). With the increase of moisture content of sawdust (S-MC), P-MC and DU of QUM, PID and LAK pellets increased, but BD of QUM and LAK pellets decreased. When size of sawdust used for the production of wood pellets decreased, P-MC and BD of LAK pellets and BD of QUM pellets increased. Decrease of particle size contributed to the increase of DU of QUM, PID and LAK pellets. In addition, BD and DU of QUM pellets produced with 12% S-MC sawdust increased as its particle size reduced. For LAK pellets, DU was not influence by particle size in the S-MCs of 10% and 12%, but increased with the decrease of particle size in the S-MC of 8%. Based on the results and economical aspects, 10% MC and 2 mesh paricle size for QUM sawdust and 12% MC and 2 mesh particle size for PID sawdust might be optimal conditions for pellets production, and fuel characteristics of wood pellets produced by the conditions greatly exceeded the minimum requirements for the $1^{st}$-grade wood pellets of the standard designated by Korea Forest Research Institute.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.223-230
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• 2011

Considering of utilizing renewable resources and recycled plastics, green composites consisted of recycled polyethylene (PE) as matrix and eco-friendly natural fibers as reinforcement were processed and characterized in the present study. First, the wood flour/recycled polyethylene pellets with different wood flour contents were prepared by twin-screw extrusion processing. Using the pellets, wood flour/recycled polyethylene green composites were fabricated and the effects of wood flour loading on their flexural, tensile, impact properties, heat deflection temperature and fracture behavior were investigated. It was concluded that the flexural strength, flexural modulus, tensile modulus and heat deflection temperature of wood flour/recycled polyethylene green composites were increased with wood flour, whereas the tensile strength and impact strength were decreased. The fracture behavior observed by means of scanning electron microscopy supported qualitatively the tendency of the impact strength with wood flour loading, compared with the ductile fracture pattern of recycled polyethylene.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.327-332
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• 2014

Polymer/wood flour composites are recently attracting a lot of interest because they are economic and ecofriendly. In this study, the effects of wood flour size on the thermal and mechanical properties of a polypropylene/wood flour composite were investigated. Mechanical properties of the composite samples prepared by melt-mixing and compression molding were tested by UTM and an izod impact tester, and thermal properties of them were measured by TGA, DMA, DSC and TMA. The best coupling agent was selected by testing three kinds of maleic anhydride modified polypropylene coupling agents, and under the same condition, the effects of wood flour size on the physical properties of the composite were investigated. According to the test results for four different wood flour sizes of 600, 250, 180 and $150{\mu}m$, flexural strength, flexural modulus, crystallinity and water-resistivity of the composite increased with decreasing wood flour size.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.53-59
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• 2008

Extracellular enzyme activities of Fomitopsis palustris were determined by the particle sizes, culture periods and concentrations of wood particle substrate which was mixture of 4 domestic coniferous woods, such as Pinus densiflora, Larix leptolepsis, Pinus koraiensis, and Pinus rigida. The results showed that the culture conditions had an effect on the secretion of most of the extracellular enzymes from Fomitopsis palustris in the mixed wood particle substrate. :The optimal culture conditions for enzyme activities were 80~100 mesh in wood particle size, 7.5% in concentrations of wood substrate, and 4~8 weeks in culture period.

• Composites Research
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.170-174
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• 2013

Atmospheric glow plasma polymerization was applied to wood powder before fabricating polypropylene (PP) matrix composites. Seven different types of monomers (Oxygen, Benzene, CH4, Acrylic-acid, Hexafluoroethane, Trifluorotolune, Hexamethyl-disiloxane) were analyzed to determine the most suitable precursor for plasma polymerization. The surface energy was calculated from measured contact angle about each monomer on PP. Hexamethyl-disiloxane (HMDSO) had a highest surface energy and is selected as the most suitable monomer. Wood powder and polypropylene were mixed as pellets by twin screw extruder and then 50 wt% wood powder/PP composites were produced by an injection machine. Tensile strength and Flexural strength have improved by 7.59% and 12.43% at the maximum respectively. SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) observation on the fracture surface revealed that the plasma polymerization have improved the interfacial bonding and the mechanical properties of the composites.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.1-5
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• 2015

The productivity and demand of porous material has been increasing by development of industry and increasing income. In particular, the fire caused by using wood flour risks wood processing industry and stock farm. The heat transfer of wood flour is carried into the depth direction by effect of oxidizer around flame, flame sometimes is progressed as smoldering. In the case of progressing as combustion fire, identifying the location of fire is difficult, and it leads to failing fire aid fire fighting. Therefore potential cause is acted as raising additional damage. This paper conducts experiments of downward deep seated fire of natural convection conditions. The samples is New Zealand wood flour that is demanded much in the domestic and oversea market. In this experiment, temperature of deep seated side is measure by changing wood flour density in holder The densities used in experiment are 3%, 5%, 10%, 15%. As a result, the tendency of temperature inside decreases as wood flour density increases. But, in the case of density which is above $0.2140g/cm^3$, the phenomenon, decreasing temperature, is not shown. The result of measurement show that average flame spread speed of wood flour is 0.249 mm/min.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.45-50
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• 2008

This study was carried out to investigate the promoting effect of wood flour on the mycelial growth of Lentinus lepideus and Lentinus edodes. To determine the optimal culture condition, we first examined the tissue origin of pine flour (Pinus densiflora) including needle, bark, root and xylem. Only the xylem-derived flour increased mycelial growth compared to no treatment control. The addition of the xylem flour (5 g/l) showed the highest increase and the glucose level in the basal medium was best at 10 g/l. The smaller particle size of the xylem flour showed the positive effect on mycelial growth; two-fold increase when supplemented with flour of which particle size is less than $106\;{\mu}m$ in diameter compared to $425\;{\mu}m$. The addition of the xylem flour continuously increased the mycelial production for 25 days while mycelia stopped growing within 15 days without the xylem flour. In addition, when woody flour obtained from the different tree species was applied to L. edodes mycelial culture, all treatments accelerated mycelial production compared to the control. Based on all results described above, we conclude that the supplementation of woody flour to culture medium may be an another promising way to increase mycelial production of economically important fungi.