Changes of crystallinity in wood cellulose by heat treatment under dried and moist conditions

The different effects of heat treatment on wood, especially on the cellulose crystallites of wood under ovendried and highly moist conditions, were investigated by Xray diffractometer. Heat was found to increase significantly the crystallinity of wood cellulose; moreover, almost twice as much crystallization was observed after heat treatment of spruce and buna under a highly moist condition than under the oven-dried condition. In pure cellulose almost the same crystallization was observed under both the conditions, whereas more crystallization occurred in wood cellulose than in pure cellulose. Absolute crystallization was observed for the wood species and pure cellulose under both conditions, considering the thermal decomposition of the amorphous region in addition to crystallization. Our results suggested that other components accomparying wood cellulose were involved in the increase of crystallinity by heat treatment, and that wood cellulose contained more quasicrystalline regions than pure cellulose. Moreover, calculated apparent activation energies revealed that crystallization and decrystallization in pure and wood cellulose under heat treatment of highly moist condition were somewhat easier than those under the oven-dried condition. The behavior of the piezoelectric modulus d'(25) almost paralleled that of crystallinity.