• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.37-43
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• 2016

Various mechanical and chemical pretreatment methods including alkali treatment, pre-beating, enzyme treatment and oxidation treatment have been used to reduce the production energy of the microfibrillated cellulose (MFC). Among them, alkali swelling can be helpful to reduce the energy consumption because the internal bonding between fibrils could be weakened. In this study, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) was used as a cosolvent to improve alkali pretreatment efficiency and the effects of NaOH concentration during NaOH-DMSO swelling on changes in fiber characteristics of softwood bleached kraft pulp (SwBKP) were elucidated. For alkali treatment in H2O-DMSO solvents, fiber length were decreased with increasing NaOH concentration while fiber width, curl and WRV were increased. WRV began to increase at 8% NaOH solution. In addition, above 8% concentration of NaOH, crystalline structure of pulp fibers converted from cellulose II to cellulose III by DMSO cosolvent. Comparing the previous results with this study, it was shown that DMSO cosolvent could promote swelling of pulp fibers and thus reduce NaOH concentration for the maximum swelling of fibers.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.737-745
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• 2017

This study was carried out to investigate the changes in micro- and nanoscopic morphology of cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) from various bioresources by investigating various mechanical milling systems. Mechanical milling in herbaceous bioresources was more effective than in woody bioresources, demonstrating lower energy consumption and finer morphology. The milling time to reach nanoscopic size was longer in woody bioresources than in herbaceous bioresources. Furthermore, at the same level of wet disk milling time, CNFs from herbaceous bioresources showed more slender morphology than those from woody bioresources. Tensile properties of nanopaper prepared from CNFs of herbaceous bioresources were higher than those of woody bioresources. The highest tensile strength was found to be 77.4 MPa in the nanopaper from Evening prim rose.

• Advanced Composite Materials
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.269-282
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• 2007

Fully biodegradable high strength composites or 'advanced green composites' were fabricated using yearly renewable soy protein based resins and high strength liquid crystalline cellulose fibers. For comparison, E-glass and aramid ($Kevlar^{(R)}$) fiber reinforced composites were also prepared using the same modified soy protein resins. The modification of soy protein included forming an interpenetrating network-like (IPN-like) resin with mechanical properties comparable to commonly used epoxy resins. The IPN-like soy protein based resin was further reinforced using nano-clay and microfibrillated cellulose. Fiber/resin interfacial shear strength was characterized using microbond method. Tensile and flexural properties of the composites were characterized as per ASTM standards. A comparison of the tensile and flexural properties of the high strength composites made using the three fibers is presented. The results suggest that these green composites have excellent mechanical properties and can be considered for use in primary structural applications. Although significant additional research is needed in this area, it is clear that advanced green composites will some day replace today's advanced composites made using petroleum based fibers and resins. At the end of their life, the fully sustainable 'advanced green composites' can be easily disposed of or composted without harming the environment, in fact, helping it.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.3-10
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• 2015

In this study, we evaluated properties of pulp treated with swelling agent and swelling concentration. We used swelling agent, such as NaOH, DMSO, urea. One of them, pulps treated with NaOH from 0 to 5% measured WRV, beating efficiency, crystallinity and aspect ratio. We identified that NaOH when freeness reaches 100mL CSF was the shortest, on the other hand, WRV didn't change. Because NaOH is good beating efficiency, when pulp treated with various concentration of NaOH from 0 to 5%, pulp treated 1% NaOH was best beating efficiency. However, WRV, crystalline structure and crystallinity didn't change. The more NaOH concentration increased, the more aspect ratio increased, but when NaOH concentration exceeds 3%, aspect ratio decreased. As a result, pulp treated with 1% NaOH was the greatest beating efficiency and WRV, chemical structure didn't change.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.376-384
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• 2014

This study investigated the effect of nanocellulose, such as microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) and cellulose nanocrystal (CNC), and aminated starch on tensile property and thermal stability of plasticized starch film. Glycerol (23 wt%) was used as a plasticizer and nanocelluloses of 1-30 parts per hundred parts of resin (phr) in the basis of plasticized starch were added. Tensile strength and elastic modulus increased with increasing nanocellulose addition amount, whereas elongation at break decreased. Tensile properties of MFC-reinforced starch film were higher than those of CNC-reinforced film. Optimum addition amount of aminated starch, which is commonly used for paper sizing, to improve tensile property of film, was found to be 5%. And 1% addition of aminated starch showed the best effect in the improvement of tensile property of the film. Thermal stability was improved with the addition of MFC to plasticized starch film with and without aminated starch.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.82-92
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• 2016

The reduction of carbon dioxide emission is hot issue in the world because we are confronted with serious global warming and climate change. As a part of carbon dioxide reduction efforts, various approaches for increasing filler loading have been carried out in order to decrease the energy consumption in papermaking processes. Effects of the pretreatment of GCC with cationic starch and MFC on the flocculation behaviour of GCC were investigated in this study. Pretreatment of GCC with cationic starch caused the change of electric charge of suspension and flocculation behaviour of GCC. Largest flocculation size was obtained near the isoelectric point in the case of cationic starch treatment. When MFC (30 times grinded) was added after preflocculation of GCC with cationic starch, the flocculation size was increased, but largest flocculation size was obtained at -150 mV of electric charge of suspension in this study. However the addition of highly grinded MFC (60 times grinded) caused smaller flocculation size of GCC than those of MFC (30 times grinded). When GCC and MFC were mixed first, and then cationic starch was added, the characteristics of MFC and the change of electric charge which could be brought by cationic starch did not affect the flocculation size of GCC at all. The flocculation size obtained by the combination of cationic starch and MFC was smaller than those of cationic starch. These results show that flocculation behaviour could be controlled by the change of electric charge of suspension and the combination methods of cationic starch and MFC.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.9-16
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• 2015

This study was carried out to investigate the effect of delignification on properties of lignocellulose nanofibers (LCNFs) prepared by wet disk-milling (WDM) after steam and ozone oxidation pre-treatments and their nanopaper sheets. Delignification treatment was effective to obtain fine morphology with uniform fiber diameter less than 35 nm without aggregation, and increased the specific surface area (SSA) and filtration time of LCNFs. In particular, SSA and filtration time of the LCNFs prepared by WDM after ozone pretreatment increased 1.5 and 5.4 times after further delignification. Delignification also increased whiteness and decreased the redness of nanopaper sheets. The highest color difference (41.9) before and after the delignification was obtained in LCNFs prepared by WDM after the steam pretreatment. Tensile properties of nanopaper sheets were also increased by further delignification. The highest tensile strength was found to be 142 MPa.