• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.416-426
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• 2007

Polypropylene (PP) composites with wood flour/wax/coupling agent were manufactured by melt compounding and injection molding. The influence of wood flour(WF), wax, and coupling agent on the mechanical and thermal properties of the composites was investigated. The addition of wood flour to neat PP has the higher tensile modulus and strength compared with neat PP. The presence of wax also improved the tensile modulus. At the same loading of PP and WF, the addition of coupling agent highly decreased the tensile modulus, and increased the tensile strength. From thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), the addition of wax improved the thermal stability of the composites in the later stages of degradation. The presence of MAPP and wood flour in turn decreased thermal stabilities of composites. From differential scanning calorimetry analysis (DSC), neither the loading of wax. nor the presence of MAPP has shown significant effect on the thermal transition of composites.

• Journal of the Korea Furniture Society
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.83-90
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• 2008

Gypsum-wood composites were made by introducing inorganic substances into wood using calcium chloride, first treating solution, and sodium sulfate, secondary treating solution, by double diffusion process under atmospheric pressure at room temperature. The process conducted as follows: water saturated specimens were soaked in calcium chloride solutions at several concentration. Then the specimens were soaked further in saturated sodium sulfate solution, and they were leached in flowing tap water for 24h. To attain sufficient weight percent gain (WPG) values, the suitable concentration of calcium chloride and soaking time in saturated sodium sulfate solution were 20% and 48h, respectively. Inorganic substances were produced mainly in the lumina of tracheides. It was made sure that these substances were dihydrate gypsum($CaSO_4$ $2H_2O$) by X -ray microanalysis (SEM-EDX). The composites had good fire resistance due to low heat transfer rate of gypsum formed in wood. However, the composites had little decay resistances, because they showed high weight losses by test fungi attacks.

• Composites Research
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.145-148
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• 2017

Wood powders were surface-modified by plasma-treating propylene to make them compatible with PP matrix in WPC(wood powder composite). The plasma treatment of propylene resulted in the deposition of an ultrathin hydrophobic film which had the chemical structure similar to that of polypropylene. Wood powder and polypropylene were mixed to pellets by twin screw extruder and then 50 wt% wood powder/PP composites were produced by an injection machine. Tensile strength and flexural strength were improved by 7.59% and 12.43% at the maximum respectively. SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) observation on the fracture surface revealed that the treatment improved the interfacial bonding and the mechanical properties of the composites.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.499-509
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• 2014

Wood filler is a porous and anisotropic material having different size, shape, and aspect ratio. The use of wood fillers such as wood particle, wood flour, and wood pulp in wood plastic composites (WPCs) are growing rapidly because these wood fillers give improved strength and stiffness to WPCs. However, the wood fillers have originally poor compatibility with plastic matrix affecting the mechanical properties of WPCs. Therefore, to improve compatibility between wood and plastic, numbers of physical and chemical treatments were investigated. While the various treatments led to improved performances in WPC industries using petroleum-based plastics, full biodegradation is still issues due to increased environmental concerns. Hence, bio-based plastics such as polylactide and polyhydroxybutyrate having biodegradable characteristics are being applied to WPCs, but relatively expensive prices of existing bio-based plastics prevent further uses. As conventional processing methods, extrusion, injection, and compression moldings have been used in WPC industries, but to apply WPCs to engineered or structural places, new processing methods should be developed. As one system, co-extrusion technique was introduced to WPCs and the co-extruded WPCs having core-shell structures make the extended applications of WPCs possible.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.101-109
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• 1996

Effects of process variables were evaluated in physical properties of the wood fiber-thermoplastic fiber composites using nonwoven web method. Turbulent air mixer using compressed air was employed to mix wood fiber with two types of thermoplastic polypropylene and nylon 6 fibers. The optimal hot press temperature and time were found to be $190^{\circ}C$ and 9 minutes in wood fiber-polypropylene fiber composite and to be $220^{\circ}C$ and 9 minutes in wood fiber-nylon 6 fiber composite. As the density of wood fiber-polypropylene fiber composite and wood fiber-nylon 6 fiber composite increased, the physical properties were improved The density appeared to be the most significant factor on physical properties in the statistical analysis. The composition ratio of polypropylene or nylon 6 fiber to wood fiber was considered not to be statistically significant factor. The thickness swelling decreased somewhat in wood fiber-polypropylene fiber composite and wood fiber-nylon 6 fiber composite as the content of synthetic fiber increased. As the increase of mat moisture content, dimensional stability was improved in wood fiber-polypropylene fiber composite but not in wood fiber-nylon 6 fiber composite.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.91-100
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• 2012

This study analysis the effect of various temperatures (20, 35 and $50^{\circ}C$) on the formaldehyde emission from wood composites, which were particleboard (PB), medium density fiberboard (MDF), high density fiberboard (HDF) and laminated HDF (L-HDF) by Japanese desiccator method. Also, to reduce formaldehyde emission by wood composites, it has been suggested that undergo a bake-out conditions. On average, the level of formaldehyde emission increased many times with a $15^{\circ}C$ increase in temperature from 20 to $35^{\circ}C$ for PB, MDF, HDF and L-HDF, respectively. Formaldehyde emissions from wood composites could be expected to increase with increasing ambient temperature. At $35$ for 28 days bake-out treatment of boards, the free formaldehyde emission reduced 67.8% (PB), 40.1% (MDF), 37.8% (HDF), and 35.2% (L-HDF). On the other hand, after the bake-out at $50^{\circ}C$ for 28 days, the formaldehyde concentration decreased by 88.2, 66.9, 62.2 and 59.3% of the concentration before the bake-out for PB, MDF, HDF and L-HDF, respectively. An interesting of the bake-out treatment at $50^{\circ}C$ after 14 days, formaldehyde emission grade of PB & MDF down $E_2$ to $E_1$, and HDF & L-HDF down $E_1$ to $E_0$.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.69-78
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• 2007

The mechanical properties of wood flour, Hwangto (325 and 1,400 mesh per 25,4 mm) and coupling agent-reinforced HDPE composites were investigated in this study. Hwangto and maleated polyethylene (MAPE) were used as an inorganic filler and a coupling agent, respectively. The addition of Hwangto and MAPE to virgin HDPE also increased the Young's modulus in the smaller degree. The addition of wood flour and Hwangto to virgin HDPE increased the tensile strength, due to the high uniform dispersion of HDPE by high surface area of Hwangto in HDPE and wood flour. MAPE also significantly increased the tensile strength. When wood flour was added, there was no notable difference on the tensile properties, in terms of Hwangto particle size. Hwangto also improved the flexural modulus and strength of reinforced HDPE composites. With different particle sizes of Hwangto, there was no considerable difference in flexural modulus and strength of reinforced HDPE composites. The addition of Hwangto showed slightly lower impact strength than that of wood flour. However, the particle size of Hwangto showed no significant effect on the impact strength of reinforced composites. In conclusion, reinforced HDPE composites with organic and inorganic fillers provide highly improved mechanical properties over virgin HDPE.

• Journal of Adhesion and Interface
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.1-9
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• 2002

The main goal of this study was to analyze the effect of process additives, i.e. maleated polypropylene (MAPP), and nucleating agent on the viscoelastic properties of different types of extruded polypropylene-wood plastic composites manufactured from either PP homopolymer, high crystallinity PP or PP impact copolymer using dynamic mechanical thermal analysis. And also, the esterification reaction between wood flour and maleated polypropylene, and its role in determining the mechanical properties of wood flour-polypropylene composites was investigated. The wood plastic composites were manufactured using 60% pine wood flour and 40% polypropylene on a Davis-Standard $Woodtruder^{TM}$. Dynamic mechanical thermal properties, polymer damping peaks(than ${\delta}$), storage modulus (E') and loss modulus (E") were measured using a dynamic mechanical thermal analyzer. XPS (X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy), also known as ESCA (Electron Spectroscopy for Chemical Analysis) study of wood flour treated with MAPP was performed to obtain information on the chemical nature of wood fiber before and after treatment. To analyze the effect of frequency on the dynamic mechanical properties of the various composites, DMA tests were performed over a temperature range of -20 to $100^{\circ}C$, at four different frequencies (1, 5, 10 and 25 Hz), and at a heating rate of $5^{\circ}C/min$. From these results, the activation energy of the various composite was measured using an Arrhenius relationship to investigate the effect of maleated PP and nucleating agent on the measurement of the interphase between the wood and plastic of the extruded polypropylene wood plastic composites.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.120-125
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• 2010

Wood-Plastic Composites (WPCs) are one of spotlighting materials for the residential construction and the industry for furniture. At this study, the limiting oxygen index (LOI) was measured by ASTM D 2863 and the cone calorimeter test was done by ISO 5660-1 to find the combustion characteristics of WPCs. In addition, the identical test was implemented to compare the combustion characteristics between the red pine and the antiseptic wood. The result of LOI measurement showed that the LOI of WPCs was lower than that of red pine or antiseptic wood. The cone calorimeter test showed that the heat release rate (HRR) of WPCs was the highest and the Peak HRR as well as the average HRR and total heat release of WPCs was higher than those of red pine or antiseptized wood

• Composites Research
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.276-281
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• 2016

Improvement of the thermal and adhesion properties of stone/wood composites was studied. Tensile test was performed for wood and stone to know the basic mechanical properties. Real-time temperature of stone and wood was measured when stone and wood was heated. To compare thermal transfer properties of stone/wood composites, two types of specimens were tested: one was stone upper whereas another was wood upper. Real time temperature measurement and lap shear test were performed to know thermal and adhesion properties by using CNT-epoxy adhesive in which CNT was dispersed in epoxy adhesive uniformly. The thermal transfer property was better for the wood upper case than stone upper case. Adding CNT improved the heat transfer as well as mechanical properties including lap shear strength.