Kaimeng Xu

By Kaimeng Xu, Guanben Du and Siqun Wang

Wood plastic composites (WPCs) is one of crucial and potential engineering wood products that has been extensively employed in the fields of landscape, transportation, municipal engineering and building construction. It has gradually been used to replace the conventional wood-based composites. This chapter aims to introduce the properties and development of WPCs and illustrate how defects in their mechanical properties, biological and aging resistance, and flame retardance affect their global development. Herein, the effects on the biological durability of WPCs against algae, mold, fungi, and termites made with various wood species with different chemical extractive compositions, the natural weathering performance of WPCs and the mechanisms of protection against ultraviolet light and moisture, the effectiveness and mechanism of reinforcement of WPCs by novel alloy modification of linear and aromatic polyamides are reviewed. Additionally, the flame retardance properties, common testing methods as well as the performances of novel flame retardants for WPCs, are comparatively described. Lastly, the limitations and prospects of WPCs in future construction applications are also discussed.

Part of the book: Engineered Wood Products for Construction

By Kaimeng Xu, Yu Chen, Guanben Du and Siqun Wang

Cellulose is the most abundant natural polymer on earth, which widely exists in various biomasses such as wood, bamboo, and other forestry and agricultural crops. Nanocelluloses isolated by various physical, chemical, and mechanical ways, as the second-generation cellulose products, facilitate the special microstructural formation such as rigid nano crystals and flexible nano fibrils, which display the high specific surface area, the excellent comprehensive mechanical strengths and thermal stability, as well as easy tailorability. Nanocellulose has been considered as a most important renewable, biodegradable, high-added-value bioresource for the development of novel functional bio-products in the future of wood industry and its industrial cross fields, including construction, polymer adhesives, composite fabrication and reinforcement, green energy storage and adsorption system. This chapter aims to introduce the important preparation and isolation methods, the basic and special properties, and several novel advanced functional applications of nanocellulose.

Part of the book: Wood Industry

By Kaimeng Xu, Huanbo Wang and Tian Liu

Wood-plastic composites (WPCs) are innovative materials prepared by mixing wood fibers, thermoplastics, and additives through extrusion, injection molding, or compression molding processes. Co-extruded WPCs (Co-WPCs) are multilayer composites, in which regular WPCs are coated with a protective shell layer through coextrusion. The core-shell structure of Co-WPCws provides a way to overcome the shortcomings of WPCs by modifications specific to the composite surfaces. With the development of coextrusion technology, Co-WPCs show promise to become one of the important leading directions of the WPC industry. Based on the special characteristics of the core-shell structure, the properties of Co-WPCs were reviewed in this chapter, including mechanical properties, dimensional stability, weather resistance, flame retardancy, etc. Furthermore, the applications of Co-WPCs were comprehensively presented. Finally, the problems and challenges in the development of Co-WPCs were put forward, and the key points of future research were also expounded.

Part of the book: Fiber-Reinforced Composites - Recent Advances, New Perspectives and Applications [Working title]