Wood 373

Making transparent wood composite

The following laboratory exercise will provide hands-on experience with delignification, wood
compositional analysis, resin infiltration and resin curing, along with material testing. These
laboratory experiments will allow the use of proper personal protection equipment, production
and handling of solutions and organic solvents, physical measurements of materials, and an
appreciation of the variability of working with natural materials such as wood.
Lab 1 Laboratory format
Lab 1 will take place over four lab sessions to make transparent wood composite. During the first
week of the lab lignin will be removed from wood veneers and washed with solvent to prepare
transparent wood. The second part of the lab 1 will be the characterization of the delignified
wood veneers through the optical microscope. During the third week of lab 1, the class will
infiltrate the transparent wood with a polymer. Each group will use a different polymer matrix
to compare their composite tensile properties with other groups during the last part of the lab.
Lab 1.3 Klason Lignin Content
Extracted wood samples, when treated with strong acids, will partly be hydrolyzed leaving behind
an insoluble residue determined as “Klason lignin” (or acid-insoluble lignin). In lab 1.2, students
used strong sulfuric acid to degrade wood into its soluble carbohydrates. The residue is acid-
insoluble lignin.
Procedure (modified from Biomacromolecules “ Optically transparent wood from a nanoporous
cellulosic template: combining functional and structural performance”)

Autoclaved wood solutions are to be filtered across glass filter crucibles.

Record weight of crucible filter.
Insert crucible filter into vacuum filtration set-up. Add wood solutions to the crucible,
ensuring all solution is transferred. Be careful not to spill acid solutions. Additionally, rinse
autoclave bottle with water and pour all sample into the bottle. Use 3x time volume of original
solution and rinse material on filter.
Remove crucible and place in oven heated to 105 ± 3 °C. Samples will be removed and
place in a desiccator. Please return to the lab and weigh samples. Record weights on
spreadsheet.
Note the precipitate is the remaining lignin contentand noted as (m); (M) is the starting mass of
the wood used in the experiment prior to hydrolysis.

2017-2018