Research Highlights
| Publication Year: 2020 | |
 Highlight ID: 1676 | Measurement of Moisture-
dependent Ion Diffusion Constants in Wood Cell Walls Diffusion constants of inorganic ions diffusing through individual wood cell wall layers were measured for the first time at moisture conditions below water saturation. ... |
 Highlight ID: 1666 | Rapid Production of High
Strength and Translucent Cellulose Nanofibril Sheets Conventional polymer processing equipment and food grade processing aids were used to continuously extrude high strength sheets of cellulose nanofibrils. ... |
 Highlight ID: 1677 | Seeing is Believing: Finding
the Right Enzyme for the Job Scientists light up enzymes to show each one's role in taking wood apart. ... |
 Highlight ID: 1674 | Simple, and Effective Biobased
Water Purification Adsorbents for Arsenic and Industrial Dye Capture A versatile contaminant absorbent was produced using strong affinity between nanomaterials extracted from wood and waste crab shells. The result is a promising new material for water purification, off ... |
| Publication Year: 2019 | |
 Highlight ID: 1325 | Mechanism for Diffusion through Wood Cell Walls Diffusion through unmodified wood cell walls is via a solid polymer diffusion mechanism, which refutes the previously accepted mechanism that diffusion occurs through aqueous pathways inside of the ce ... |
| Publication Year: 2018 | |
 Highlight ID: 1307 | Outdoor Strain Cycling Robot Reveals Key Durability Factors for Building Sealants Outdoor durability testing of building sealants by autonomous robot demonstrates advantages of summer over winter installation and the dominant role cyclic strain plays in property degradation. ... |
 Highlight ID: 1304 | Termite Resistance of Wood�Plastic Composites Wood-plastic composite (WPC) specimens were exposed to termites both in the laboratory and the field in Bogor, Indonesia. On a scale of 0 (complete failure) to 10 (sound), after 30 months field exposu ... |
 Highlight ID: 1311 | X-Ray Methods to Observe and Quantify Adhesive Penetration into Wood To accelerate development of new and improved wood adhesives for engineered wood products, researchers are working to understand the optimal adhesive penetration into wood for specific products and ap ... |
| Publication Year: 2017 | |
 Highlight ID: 1297 | Lignin coated cellulose nanocrystals Increase Shipment Temperature Strength and Allow Blown Film Production Wood based nanomaterials enable higher use temperatures, greater strength, and faster productions cycles of renewable plastic. ... |
 Highlight ID: 1282 | Scientists study how water changes wood Water causes a host of wood damage mechanisms such as mold, decay, fastener corrosion, and splitting. This research elucidates how water changes wood and leads to these wood damage mechanisms. ... |
 Highlight ID: 1269 | Soy adhesives resolve two problems at once Lower formaldehyde emission bonded wood products can be made using plant-based adhesives through an industry-government partnership. ... |
 Highlight ID: 1299 | Understanding how the organization and interactions of the atoms that compose wood control its mechanical properties To expand the uses and efficient utilization of wood, Forest Service researchers strive to learn how manipulate its molecular-scale structure to control its mechanical properties ... |
| Publication Year: 2016 | |
 Highlight ID: 664 | Improving Moisture Durability of Forest Products Using Small-angle Neutron Scattering Moisture is the underlying cause of numerous durability issues in forest products, including decay, lack of dimensional stability, and fastener corrosion. An improved understanding of where and how wa ... |
 Highlight ID: 661 | New Test of Raw Material Quality Improves the Strength of Wood Laminates Plywood and laminated veneer lumber are built from wood veneers. Because the test for surface quality of the veneer was not very useful, Forest Service scientists developed a quick, easy method that t ... |
 Highlight ID: 660 | Site-Selective Surface Modification of Cellulose Nanocrystals Forest Service researchers The hydrophilic surfaces of cellulose nanocrystals are synthetically converted to highly reactive functional groups. ... |
 Highlight ID: 666 | Using Soybeans to Replace Synthetic Adhesives for Wood Bonding Soybeans were used to glue the first plywood but were replaced by fossil-fuel-based adhesives after World War II. Scientists at the Forest Service's Forest Products Laboratory have helped soy adhesive ... |
| Publication Year: 2015 | |
 Highlight ID: 601 | Advancing Understanding of Wood Damage Mechanisms Forest Service researchers examined the diffusion of ions in wood using synchrotron-based X-ray fluorescence microscopy. The researchers found that there was a threshold moisture content below which ... |
 Highlight ID: 614 | Discovery of Cellulose Nanocrystals as Pot-life Stabilizers for Epoxy Coatings Waterborne epoxy coatings are high-value, sought-after environmentally friendly products in the coating industry mostly due to their ease of use, performance and low maintenance. Waterborne epoxy coat ... |
 Highlight ID: 612 | High-performance Cellulose Nanocrystal Polyolefin Composites are an Attractive Filler for Polymer Composites Nanocellulose-polypropylene and nanocellulose-polyethylene composites exhibited the greatest improvement ever reported for such composites made with unmodified cellulose nanocrystals (CNC). Therefore, ... |
 Highlight ID: 618 | How Does Wood Decay Start? How do fungi rot wood? Using new tools, fluorescent dye attached to tiny beads, and laser confocal microscopy, Forest Service scientists were able to follow oxidation on a microscopic level. The infor ... |
| Publication Year: 2014 | |
 Highlight ID: 588 | New Insight into Wood Damage Mechanisms Wood fails because bad things start to happen when wood gets wet. Dimensional stability, mold growth, fungal attack, fastener corrosion, all are caused by fluctuations in moisture or an abundance of m ... |
| Publication Year: 2013 | |
 Highlight ID: 449 | Ceramic-Like Thermal Expansion Obtained from Cellulose Nanocrystal Films One of the unique properties of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) are their low dimensional change with changes in temperature. Understanding the role and mechanism associated with thermal expansion within ... |
 Highlight ID: 447 | New Process Fabricates Efficient Reclyclable Solar Cells Using Natural Substrates Solar cells fabricated on optically transparent cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) films reach a power conversion efficiency of 2.7 percent, an unprecedented figure for cells on substrates derived from renew ... |
 Highlight ID: 450 | Removing Organic Compounds from Water with Reusable Nanofiber Films Researchers produced films for water decontamination using cellulose nanofibers as a matrix material for the suspension of photocatalytic nano particles. ... |
 Highlight ID: 435 | Success of Wood Veneers Influenced by Harvesting Season and Temperature: Plywood Performance and Failure: A New Understanding Cooperation with Finnish researchers results in new understanding of relationships between veneer processing, veneer properties, and product failure. ... |
| Publication Year: 2012 | |
 Highlight ID: 1 | Do Not Blame Adhesives When Veneers Are Guilty Perfectly good adhesives may be wrongly discarded after failing a performance test when in actuality the veneer caused the failure. ... |
| Publication Year: 2011 | |
 Highlight ID: 301 | Cellulose Nanocrystals Cellulose nanocrystals are ultra-small rod-like reinforcement material that can be extracted from trees, plants and some sea animals. This new technology has potential benefit to a variety of cellulos ... |
 Highlight ID: 290 | Developing tools to assess mechanical properties of wood cell walls Nanoindentation is a tool capable of probing mechanical properties at the sub-micrometer level, such as in wood cell walls, individual components in a wood-based composite, coatings, adhesive bondline ... |
 Highlight ID: 280 | Elucidating Covalent Bond Formation and Cleavage in Wood A new technique has been developed to monitor structural changes in the polymers present in wood cell walls. This allows researchers, for example, to look at how brown rot fungi attack lignin structur ... |
 Highlight ID: 305 | Lumen filling and sol-gel reinforcement of the wood cell wall FPL researchers used a two-prong strategy to enhance weathering properties of wood. This dual treatment showed promise in protecting wood against the combined effects of sunlight and moisture. ... |
 Highlight ID: 309 | Soy-based Adhesives for Wood Products Soy-based adhesives developed at FPL have been commercialized and allow wood manufacturers to replace adhesives based on fossil fuel with biomass-based adhesives. ... |
| Publication Year: 2010 | |
 Highlight ID: 191 | Cellulose Nanocrystals: Novel Templates for the Synthesis of Nanostructures Harvesting the properties of widely available natural biopolymers for the design of novel systems in nanobiotechnology has been largely ignored in favor of other biological molecules, such as proteins ... |
 Highlight ID: 170 | Centennial Edition, Wood Handbook—Wood as an Engineering Material The Wood Handbook—Wood as an Engineering Material serves as a primary reference document for a wide variety of users-from the general public through architects and design engineers who use wood ... |
 Highlight ID: 163 | Effects of Press Sizes on Internal Steam Pressure during Particleboard Hot-Pressing Process Internal steam pressure produced during the hot-pressing cycle in particleboard production is critical to the newly developed bond strength that will determine the overall performance of particleboard ... |
 Highlight ID: 173 | Elucidating Covalent Bond Formation and Cleavage in Wood Working with a group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Biochemistry, FPL researchers have discovered mechanistic details behind some long-standing theories of wood adhesion and bro ... |
 Highlight ID: 175 | Scale-up of cellulose nano material production There is considerable research internationally on cellulose nano-materials as reinforcement fibers for high strength composites. A persistent problem has been unavailability of cellulose nano-crystals ... |
 Highlight ID: 190 | Sol-gel technology to enhance performance properties of wood or wood fiber With support from industry partners, FPL researchers are developing new sol-gel technologies to enhance performance properties of wood or wood fiber. Sol-gel technologies are wet-chemical techniques t ... |
 Highlight ID: 172 | Soy-Based Adhesives Provide Wood Composites That Meet California Emission Standards Ashland- Hercules, working cooperatively with the Forest Products Laboratory, have developed these soy adhesives and have commercialized them for interior plywood, engineered wood flooring and particl ... |
Team Members
| Name | Job Title | Phone |
|---|---|---|
 Baumann, Melissa view profile » | Research Chemist | 608-231-9278 |
 Frihart, Charles R. view profile » | Research Chemist | 608-231-9208 |
Huberty, Sarah view profile » | Program Support Assistant | 608-231-9465 |
 Hunt, Christopher G. view profile » | Research Chemist | 608-231-9521 |
 Ibach, Rebecca E. view profile » | Research Chemist | 608-231-9472 |
 Jakes, Joseph view profile » | Research Materials Engineer | 608-231-9308 |
Kim, Hoon view profile » | Research Chemist | |
 Lacher, Steven view profile » | Materials Engineer | 608-231-9421 |
 Lorenz, Linda view profile » | Chemist | 608-231-9216 |
 Moon, Robert J. view profile » | Materials Research Engineer | 404-894-1026 |
 O'Dell, Jane view profile » | General Engineer | 608-231-9497 |
 Plaza, Nayomi view profile » | Research Materials Engineer | 608-231-9561 |
 Schueneman, Gregory view profile » | Supervisory Research Materials Engineer | 608-231-9412 |
 Stark, Nicole M. view profile » | Supervisory Research Chemical Engineer | 608-231-9392 |
 Yelle, Daniel J. view profile » | Research Forest Products Technologist | 608-231-9359 |
Products (Publications & Patents)
Research Projects
| There are no Research Projects to report at this time. |
Partnerships
 Ongoing Collaboration Leads to Success for Adhesives ResearchAdhesives are only a small part of wood composites by weight but are a substantial part of the cost. Increasing petroleum prices have stimulated commercial interest in using soybean flour for bonding wood products instead of the traditionally used petroleum-based phenol-formaldehyde. Based on this interest, a partnership was formed between the Forest Products Laboratory and Heartland Resource Technologies in 2004, and a technology was jointly developed that uses up to 75% soybean flour in the adhesive. Xethanol Corporation, an ethanol producer with facilities in Iowa, acquired licensing rights to a patented process developed by FPL and the University of Wisconsin and signed a cooperative research and development agreement to solidify the partnership. The patented process aids in the conversion of xylose, a sugar found in waste biomass and corn fiber, to ethanol and xylitol, a sweetener used in food processing. The research was initially aimed at replacing part of the existing adhesive for oriented strandboard. However, the success of the laboratory work, including the issuance of several patents, has led to the pursuit of additional applications, including plywood and molded wood products. Research moved from mainly laboratory work to a mixture of laboratory studies and plant trials. The success of this work is further illustrated by the creation of a new research and development venture in 2007 called H2H Innovations, which is the result of Heartland Resource Technologies joining forces with Hercules Incorporated. H2H Innovations plans to leverage existing soy-based adhesive technologies from both companies to accelerate the development of new adhesive products for the wood products industry. |
Lab Notes - FPL's online news feed
Below are the 10 most recent Lab Notes blog postings pertaining to this research unit.
| Title | Date Posted |
|---|---|
 The Journal Nature Features FPL ResearcherJunyong (J.Y.) Zhu, PhD Fiber and Chemical Science Research Research General Engineer Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) researcher Junyong (J.Y.) Zhu was featured in the journal Nature for his contribution to the recent article, “Developing fibr... | 05-06-2021 |
 Better Adhesives Mean Stronger, Cheaper Wood Products(This article was originally posted on Inside the Forest Service.) As great as engineered wood—such as plywood or particle board—is for a range of building and manufacturing uses, it has its limitations, especially in outdoor applications. O... | 10-31-2019 |
 A Golden AchievementLinda Lorenz, a chemist at the Forest Products Laboratory (FPL), is celebrating an incredible 50 years of service to the Federal government this year. Amazingly, every one of those years was spent right here at the Lab... | 08-04-2016 |
 Cellulose Nanocrystals as Filler for PolymersIn a new publication, Supervisory Research Materials Engineer Gregory T. Schueneman reports on his research with cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs). CNCs are a class of renewable bionanomaterials with excellent mechanical properties that have attracted in... | 04-14-2015 |
 Set Free the Cellulose!As the most abundant biopolymers on earth, cellulose and lignin form the building blocks for trees and other plants. For centuries the durable, renewable benefits of wood have helped provide shelter and energy for people across the globe. Using tree... | 07-15-2014 |
 Soy Proteins as Wood AdhesivesProtein-based adhesives have a long and ingenious history. Animal protein, casein from milk, soy flour, and even blood have historically been used as bonding agents for wood product applications. These proteins have allowed for the development of bon... | 05-06-2014 |
 Biological Properties of WoodRebecca Ibach, research chemist at FPL, has written a chapter for the new edition of the Handbook of Wood Chemistry and Wood Composites (2nd ed., 2013) titled Biological Properties of Wood... | 08-13-2013 |
 Wood Water Filter Design Wins Regional CompetitionA team of engineering students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) took first place in a recent American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) competition with a bit of guidance from FPL Research Chemist Mandla Tshabalala... | 05-09-2013 |
| Jakes Honored with Early Career Scientist Award FPL researcher Joseph Jakes has been selected to receive the 2011 Forest Service Research and Development Deputy Chief’s Early Career Scientist Award... | 04-20-2012 |
| New Wood Product Launched with Help from FPL With its more than 100 years of research on record, people often look to the FPL for answers when new questions about wood products arise. So FPL researchers were up to the challenge when Eastman Chemical Company approached them during the developmen... | 04-13-2012 |