• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.79-87
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• 2006

Value-added utilization of the disposed ash trees due to the infestation by Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) was explored by converting them into particleboards (PBs) and wood-plastic composites (WPCs). The experimental result showed that PB panels could be successfully manufactured from the ash wood but compaction ratio need to be higher than 1.3 in order to meet the standard requirements listed by American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Ash wood plastic composites with high density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) were also prepared with additives by extrusion. Physical and mechanical properties of ash wood plastic composite compared favorably to those made of pine and maple.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.125-131
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• 2011

The effects of chopped kenaf fiber concentration on mechanical property of polypropylene (PP) composite are investigated. The addition of kenaf increased the tensile strength, flexural modulus, impact strength, specific gravity, and HDT, while decreased the elongation%, flexural strength, and melt flow index. The increase of mechanical properties is due to increased surface area contacting between fiber and polymer matrix and fiber-fiber interaction. Volatile extractives in the kenaf seemed to decrease the interfacial adhesion between kenaf surface and PP.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.91-94
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• 2005

Polypropylene as a matrix has been used for wood polymer composites(WPC). In preparing WPC, the coupling agent, Polypropylene grafted Maleic Anhydride(PP-G-MA) was used in order to obtain a good interfacial bonding force between matrix and fillers and dispersion of wood powders. In this study, the effects of wood powder contents and water absorption on the mechanical properties were experimentally investigated. The tensile strength and flexural strength of composites reached its peak value when the wood powder content was around 60 wt%. However, the peak value of the impact was observed about 30 wt% of wood powder content. The tensile strength and flexural strength increase with increasing the wood power contents. But the impact strength decrease with increasing the wood powder contents. The slight change was observed with the water absorption in the WPC. The optimal condition of the compositions such as Anti-oxidant and UV stabilizers for the outdoor application was suggested in this research.

• Journal of Adhesion and Interface
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.23-29
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• 2009

We investigated effects of a compatibilizer on the rheological properties during mixing and thermal properties of polypropylene (PP)-natural fiber composites. Two types of natural fibers (cotton fiber and wood fiber) were compared. maleic anhydride grafted PP was used for a compatibilizer. On increasing the amounts of the compatibilizer, the torque values of composites were increased, regardless of the kind of fibers. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results showed a slight increase in the degree of crystallinity with adding the compaibilizing agent, while the effects of the kind of fibers were marginal. It may be considered, however, the cotton fiber exhibits better interaction with PP-g-MAH than the natural fiber based on the rheographs, DSC, and XRD results.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.8-15
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• 2017

Most fire victims succumb to smoke inhalation, and fire smoke toxicity from interior materials is increasing with increased use of plastics. Large amounts of hazardous effects of smoke are related to deposition of smoke particles in respiratory tracts, and deposition characteristics are influenced by size distribution of particles. Thus, it is essential to know the size distribution of smoke particles from plastics for hazard analysis of fire smoke. In a recent study, it has been shown that size distributions of smoke particles from PP are different from wood in many aspects. In order to know whether other plastics show the same characteristics as PP, size distributions of smoke particles from four plastic materials (LDPE, PA66, PMMA, and PVC) were measured in real time under each fire type with various temperature and oxygen supply. In this study, smoke particles from different plastics were generated uniformly by using steady-state tube furnace method provided in ISO/TS 19700. Their size distributions were measured by using an electrical low pressure impactor (ELPI). Results of measurements showed that size distributions of smoke particles from these four plastic materials were similar to those from PP in many aspects. However, they were distinctively different from those of wood.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.572-579
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• 2017

Determination of the wood content in wood plastic composite (WPC) is crucial to form reliable WPC market. WPC with simple formulation consisting of only two components (wood flour and polypropylene) was examined using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) for determining wood content in the WPC. TGA method using derivative peak temperature (DTp) of polypropylene under low heating rate ($5^{\circ}C/min$) showed more reliable calibration curve and lower error factor compared to method of using the percentage of weight loss of wood flour. In addition, AMS using bio-based carbon content showed greater reliability for the determination of wood content in the WPC in comparison with the TGA method.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.559-571
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• 2017

This study was conducted to determine the adhesive performances of plywoods affected by layering direction and the amounts of thermoplastic films. The face and back layers of veneer were hardwood species (Mixed light hardwood) and core layer veneer was radiata pine (Pinus radiata D. Don). Thermoplastic film used as adhesive were polypropylene (PP) film and polyethylene (PE) film. Thermal analysis and tensile strength were investigated on each films. As a result, the melting temperature of PP and PE films were $163.4^{\circ}C$ and $109.7^{\circ}C$, respectively, and the crystallization temperature were $98.9^{\circ}C$ and $93.6^{\circ}C$, respectively. Tensile strength and elongation of each films appeared higher on the width direction than length direction. Considering the characteristics of the thermoplastic films, the test for the amount of film used was carried out by layering film to the target thickness on veneer. The effecting of layering direction of film on plywood manufacturing was conducted by laminating in the length and width directions of the film according to the grain direction of veneer. Tensile-shear strength of plywood in wet condition was satisfied with the quality standard (0.7 MPa) of KS F 3101 when the film was used over 0.05 mm of PP film and over 0.10 mm of PE film. Tensile-shear strength of plywood after cyclic boiling exceeded the KS standard when PP film was used 0.20 mm thickness. Furthermore, higher bonding strength was observed on a plywood made with width direction of film according to grain direction of veneer than that of length direction of film. Based on microscopic analysis of the surface and bonding line of plywood, interlocking between veneers by penetration of a thermoplastic film into inner and cracks were observed.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.46-53
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• 1994

This study was conducted to investigate a feasibility of manufacturing wood fiber thermoplastic composites and to evaluate their mechanical properties. Wood fiber as a potential reinforcing filler was compounded with two thermoplastics (polypropylene and high density polyethylene) in high intensity thermokinetic plastic mixer aided with a wetting agent. It was found that wood fiber thermoplastic composites could be manufactured by injection molding process. The tensile and flexural strength of injection molded specimens were improved greatly with increasing wood fiber concentration. Tensile and flexural modulus increased proportionately with wood fiber concentration. Wood fiber provided reinforcement with thermoplastics in terms of strength and modulus. However, the percent elongation at break and energy to break were reduced with increasing wood fiber loadings. Impact strength also showed similar trend.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.18-21
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• 2013

In this study, surface modification of wood powder by atmospheric pressure plasma treatment was investigated. The composites were manufactured using wood powder and polypropylene(wood powder : PP = 55 wt% : 45 wt%). Atmospheric pressure plasma was treated as condition of 3KV, $17{\pm}1$KHz, 2 g/min. Helium was used as carrier gas and monomer such as hexamethyl-disiloxane(HMDSO) was used to modify surface property by plasma polymerization. The tensile strength of untreated waste wood powder(W3) and homogeneous wood powder(H3) were about 18.5 MPa, 21.5 MPa while the tensile strength of plasma treated waste wood powder(PW3) and homogeneous wood powder(PH3) were about 21.2 MPa, 23.4 MPa, respectively. And tensile strength of W3 and H3 were improved by 14.6% and 8.8%, respectively. From the results for mechanical property, morphological analysis, we obtained improved interfacial bonding of polypropylene and wood powder modified by plasma treatment.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.505-516
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• 2009

The effects of wood species, particle size of wood flours and coupling treatment on the mechanical properties of wood plastic composites (WPC) are investigated in this study. Chemical components of wood flour from 3 different wood species were analyzed by the chemical analysis. Wood flours of 40~60 mesh and 80~100 mesh were manufactured from Larix (Larix kaempferi Lamb.), Quercus (Quercus accutisima Carr.), and Maackia (Maackia amuresis Rupr. et Maxim). The wood flours were reinforced into polypropylene (PP) by melt compounding and injection molding, then tensile, flexural, and impact strength properties were analyzed. The order of alpha-cellulose content in wood is Quercus (43.6%), Maackia (41.3%) and Larix (36.2%). The order of lignin content in wood is Larix (31.6%), Maackia (24.7%), and Quercus accutisima (24.4%). The content of extractives in wood is in the order of Larix (8.5%), Maackia (4.4%), and Quercus accutisima (3.9%). As the content of alpha-cellulose increases and the lignin and extractives decreases, tensile and flexural strengths of the WPC increase. At the same loading level of wood flours, the smaller particle size (80~100 mesh) of wood flours showed highly improved tensile and flexural strengths, compared to the larger one (40~60 mesh). The impact strength of the WPC was not significantly affected by the wood species, but the wood flours of larger particle size showed better impact strengths. The addition of maleated polypropylene (MAPP) provided the highly improved tensile, flexural and impact strengths. Morphological analysis shows improved interfacial bonding with MAPP treatment for the composites.