Treesearch

Carboxylated cellulose nanocrystals (OA-CNCs) isolated by aqueous recyclable oxalic acid hydrolysis from degreasing cotton were used to observe its self-assembly behavior and chiral nematic properties. The oxalic acid here served as the sole catalyst to esterify and hydrolyze the degreasing cotton. The results indicated that the obtained OA-CNC suspensions were spontaneously phase-separated into a chiral nematic mesophase above a critical concentration, and the occurrence of chiral self-assembly is highly dependent on the aspect ratio and the surface charge of the OA-CNC suspension....

Wood is one of the most abundant biomaterials on Earth, which has been used for centuries in construction applications including furniture, roofing, flooring, and cabinetry. However, wood chips—which are a low-quality and plentiful waste byproduct of lumber milling, woodworking, and shipping operations—have low economic value and complicated disposal methods. In this paper, we propose a strategy for wood chip reuse through the fabrication of bio-based building insulation foam. Through a high-temperature chemical treatment delignification process, we introduced additional small pores within...

The search for more-sustainable materials has motivated research on lightweight, porous structures for thermal insulation and noise reduction, such as for construction and cold-chain transportation. Wood, known as one of the most renewable materials on Earth, has been widely and long used in construction for its high strength/weight ratio, wide abundance, low cost and relative sustainability. However, natural wood is much less effective at reducing noise or preventing heat loss than conventional petroleum- and mineral-based porous structures (for example, expanded polystyrene foam and...

Background: Six synchronous, wind-driven, high severity megafires burned over 300,000 hectares of mesic temperate forest in the western Cascades of NW Oregon and SW Washington states in early September 2020. While remote sensing data has been utilized to estimate fire severity across the fires, assessments of fire impacts informed by field observations are missing. We compiled field measurement data, pre- and post-fire, from a statistically representative sample of existing forest inventory analysis (FIA) plots, to estimate stand-level fire effects indices that describe (1) tree survival...