• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.711-720
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• 2009

Leaf fibers have many good properties; they are strong, long, cheap, abundant and bio-degradable. Since they, however, contain a great quantity of non-cellulose components, they have been used for the materials of mats, ropes, bags and nets rather than those of clothing. In this study, we investigated the characteristics of leaf fibers in order to promote the use of leaf fibers for the materials of clothing as well as develop the high value-added textile fibers. Leaf fiber plants including New Zealand Flax, Henequen and Banana plant, which have various nature and shape, were used. New Zealand Flax and Henequen leaves were cut from lower part of plants. Banana leaves and pseudo-stems were peeled and cut from the stem of Banana plants. First, the thin outer skins like film of leaves, veins and stems were removed before retting. The chemical retting had been processed for 1hour, at 100 in 0.4% $H_2SO_4$ aqueous solution(liquid ratio 50:1). Then, the retted leaf fibers had been soaked for 1hour, at room temperature in 0.5% NaClO solution(v/v) to remove the miscellaneous materials. We investigated the physical characteristics of three leaf fibers including the transversal and longitudinal morphology, the contents(%) of pectin, lignin and hemicellulose, the length and diameter of fibers, the tensile strength of the fiber bundles, and the fiber crystallinity and the moisture regain(%). The lengths of fiber from three leaf fibers were similar to their leaf lengths. The fiber bundles were composed of the cellulose paralleled to the fiber axis and the non-cellulose intersecting at right angle with the fiber axis. The diameters of New Zealand Flax, Henequen and Banana fibers were $25.13{\mu}m$, $18.16{\mu}m$ and $14.01{\mu}m$, respectively and their tensile strengths were 19.40 Mpa, 32.16 Mpa and 8.45 Mpa, respective. The non-cellulose contents of three leaf fibers were relatively as high as 40%. If the non-cellulose contents of leaf fibers might be controlled, leaf fibers could be used for the materials of textile fiber, non-wovens and Korean traditional paper, Hanjee.

• Textile Coloration and Finishing
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.43-50
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• 2003

N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide(NMMO) is recently hewn as a solvent dissolving cellulose to produce a new regenerated cellulosic fiber, lyocell. In this study, four kinds of cellulosic fibers (lyocell, regular cotton, treated cotton with 50% and 75% NMMO aqueous solution) was examined and compared in terms of mechanical properties and dyeability. The swelling of cotton treated with NMMO aqueous solution is higher than that of cotton treated with water. In dyeing rate, the cotton treated with NMMO was faster than regular cotton. NMMO treatment decreased the crystallinity of cotton fabrics and improved their softness and smoothness.

• Textile Coloration and Finishing
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.10-15
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• 2009

A mixed bi-functional reactive dye has been applied to the cotton and the cotton/hemp blend and their dyeing and fastness properties were compared. The cotton/hemp blend exhibited higher exhaustion values and better build-up property than cotton, presumably due to the lower crystallinity. Hence, the reproducibility of dyeing of hemp is expected to be excellent. Fastness properties of reactive dyes on cotton and cotton/hemp blend are found to be almost identical. The results obtained suggest that hemp in cellulosic fabric could be used as an important alternative to universal cotton in cellulose fabrics.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.50-55
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• 2008

Recently, sea algae cultivation as carbon sink and carbon dioxide fixation have been considered. Also, various researches on bioenergy derived from sea algae and the utilization of fibers, saccharide, and lipid of sea algae have been performing. Till now, algae fibers has been used for manufacturing of paper and reinforcing of polymer composites and the extracts of sea algae are used for cosmetics, pharmaceutical materials and food such as agar. Especially, algae fiber has so similar properties to cellulose in terms of crystallinity and functional groups that it can be utilized as reinforcements of biocomposites. Biocomposites as alternatives of glass fiber reinforced polymer composites are environmentally friendly polymer composites reinforced with natural fibers and are actively applying to the automobiles and construction industries. In this paper, characteristics of algae fiber and biocomposites reinforced with algae fiber as environmentally friendly energy materials have been introduced.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.29-35
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• 2011

Since the role of lignin in the wood cell wall is to keep integrity and structure rigidity of lignocellulosic substrate, lignin of the cell wall has to be destroyed before enzymatic hydrolysis of wood polysaccharides. The aspen wood meals were delignified with ozone in acidic condition. The chemical characteristics of wood meal were investigated. The 60% of lignin and almost zero % of polysaccharides in aspen wood meal was degraded with 10min. ozone treatment. The phenolic hydroxyl groups of lignin in ozonated wood meal were increased with ozonation time. The sugar composition of ozonated wood meal showed that the hemicellulose was more susceptible to ozonation than cellulose. The yield of aldehyde was increased in some degree with 10min. ozone treatment and decreased with longer ozone treatment.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.23-28
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• 2011

The pine wood meal was ozonated in acidic water. A 91.3% of lignin and 13% of polysaccharides in pine wood meal were degraded with 180 min ozonation. The phenolic hydroxyl groups of lignin in ozonated wood meals were increased with ozonation time. The vanillin content in nitrobenzene oxidation products of lignin is decreased with 10 min. ozonation and it was slightly increased with ozonation time. The sugar composition of ozonated wood meals showed that the hemicellulose was more susceptible to ozonation than cellulose. The crystallinity of ozonated wood meal was increased.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.11-18
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• 2008

Anatomical characteristics of volumetric composition, fiber length, vessel diameter, and crystalline properties of cellulose in kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.) planted in the reclaimed land of Buan-si, Korea were examined to understand the growth characteristics using a light microscopy and an X-ray diffraction method. The samples of kenaf were taken from six positions (3 cm, 35 cm, 70 cm, 105 cm, 280 cm, and 320 cm) of each stem over the growth period (July, August, September, and October) after seeding in the mid-May. In the kenaf stem, phloem constituted 10 to 15 %, xylem 66 to 82%, and pith 7 to 19%. The ray, bast fiber, and remainder comprised 50%, 20%, and 30% of the phloem, respectively. The volume of vessel, ray, and fiber in the xylem was approximately 10, 15, and 75%, respectively. The proportion of cell wall was 30.92% at the base of stem and 46.40% at the top of stem, respectively. The average length of bast fiber and xylem fiber was about 2.8 mm and 0.9 mm, respectively. Radial and tangential diameters of vessel increased with the increase of growth period, while they decreased with increasing the stem height. Relative crystallinity ranged from 70 to 79% in phloem and from 50 to 56% in xylem. Cellulose crystallite width was about 3 nm both in the phloem and xylem. Thus, the volumetric composition and cell dimensions in the phloem and xylem appeared to be varied with the growth period and the stem height.

• Journal of Korea Foresty Energy
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.62-72
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• 2001

To elucidate the behaviors of alkali swelllng of woods. the dimensional change in cross section of cell elements of four major Korean woods during alkali swelling were examined by an optical microscory, an imaging analysis method and an X-ray diffrartion During alkali swelling, tracheid diameter of Larix kaempferi wood showed greater swelling property than that of Pinus koraiensis wood, and the cell wall swelled highly over 10% sodium hydroxide solution treatment. The radial diameter of vessel elements in earlywood shrunk, but it swelled slightly in tangential direction. When treated with 5% NaOH, the wall thickness of wood fiber increased about three times over the original one. The thickness of cell wall in all elements and the diameter of wood fiber and tracheid showed almost isotropic shrinkage. The diameter of cell elements during the mercerization process decreased, but cell wall thickness Increased. Crystal transformation of cellulose in wood was not occurred by alkali treatments. but relative crystallinity and crystallite width of the woods increased slightly. Consequently, it was demonstrated that the swelling properties of woods were dependant on wood species, cell elements and alkali concentration.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.417-423
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• 2010

In this study, an effective method to prepare granular binderless ZSM-5 which is as efficient p-xylene separatory adsorbent was explored. Colloidal silica sol 30 wt% solution as an inorganic binder and microcrystalline cellulose as an organic additive were added to ZSM-5 powder ($SiO_2/Al_2O_3$ = 50). Adsorbent with enough strength (0.721 kgf), high crystallinity (94.6%) and high BET specific surface area ($379.2m^2$/g) was obtained by calcination, binderless treatment, ${NH_4}^+$ ion exchange, and activation after spherical granulation process. A batch type adsorption experiment was proceeded with solutions comprising 3 xylene isomers by 1 : 1 : 1 weight ratio to evaluate adsorption characteristics of prepared absorbent. As a result, the obtained binderless ZSM-5 granule showed a higher selective adsorption performance for para-xylene than that of commercial adsorbent.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.268-277
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• 2017

In this study, lignocellulose nanofibrils (LCNFs) were prepared from Pussy willow wood powder by disk-milling after pretreatment using the cosolvent of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([EMIM]Ac) and N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) with different mixing ratios for different time. All pretreated samples showed native cellulose I polymorph and cellulose crystallinity was lowest when cosolvent of DMF with 30% [EMIM]Ac was used. Average crystallite size of raw material and the pretreated product by MDF and its cosolvent with 10% [EMIM]Ac was found to be about 3.2 nm and decreased with increasing pretreatment time at the DMF cosolvent with 30% [EMIM]Ac. Defibrillation efficiency was improved by loosening wood cell wall structure by the pretreatment using co-solvent system of [EMIM]Ac and DMF.