Laboratory of Chemistry of Wood and Wood products

The activities of the laboratory of wood chemistry and wood products cover various aspects of chemical technologies applied to the wood sector. These activities include the assessment of chemical composition of wood, measurement of calorific value of wood and wood products, characterisation of adhesives and gluing products (both for structural and non-structural use), and study of the interphase between wood and adhesives or between wood and coatings. The main applications of these activities involve several fields, from the Conservation of Cultural Heritage (diagnostics, restoration and conservation of material from both archaeological excavations and timber structures) to the productive and industrial Systems.

TEAM

Benedetto Pizzo (responsabile)
Luigi Fiorentino
Ilaria Santoni
Elisa Pecoraro

research

- Wood bonding and coating
Evaluation of wood-adhesive joints (e.g., made through epoxy resins, polyurethanes, vinyl acetates etc.) and wood-coating joints (e.g., of acrylic type, of polyurethanic type etc.). More specifically, the joints are characterised from physical-mechanical (e.g., shear strength, delamination, accelerated ageing, dynamic mechanical analysis etc.), chemical (e.g., infrared spectroscopy etc.) and microscopic (e.g., penetration, microscopic observation etc.) points of view.

- Wood chemistry
Measurement of wood chemical composition (lignin, cellulose, hemicelluloses) and of extractives by means of different techniques of investigation, and evaluation of the influence of these substances on the technological wood properties (e.g., biological properties, shrinkage/swelling, gluing, mechanical properties etc.), also after natural ageing or after environmental interactions.

- Wood consolidation
Evaluation of the efficacy of consolidation interventions on decayed wood, both for structural and non-structural use. Among these latter, mainly important is the conservation of archaeological material by using various impregnants (PEG, colophony, sugar alcohols, cellulose derivates etc.)

- Diagnostics on the chemical state of preservation of wood
The residual quantity of cell wall chemical components, such as structural polysaccharides (cellulose and hemicelluloses), lignin, ashes, extractives, are determined. These analyses are mainly carried out for diagnostic purposes on wood samples from archaeological excavations, and hence characterised by a medium or high level of decay.

main equipment

- FT-MIR + FT-NIR Spectrometer with ATR (Attenuated Total Reflectance) device
- DMA (Dynamic Mechanical Analysis) test machine
- UV-Visible Spectrophotometer
- Oven able to reach a temperature of 1100°C
- Wood rotary mill
- Vibratory sieving machine for the granulometric separation of wood meal
- Equipments for carrying out analytical chemical measurements (glassware, precision balances, automatic titration device, centrifuge, pH-meters, oven etc.)
- Horizontal pressing machine for wood gluing
- Calorimetric bomb for determining the calorific value of wood and wood products

Keywords

Wood chemistry
chemical components of Wood
holocellulose
Klason lignin
cellulose, extractives
Wood composites
archaeological Wood
cation exchange capacity
gluing of Wood
Wood wettability
shear tests
consolidation
impregnation
wood adhesives
glue
protein
delamination
coating

[Last updated on: 21-09-2011]