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How thermal treatment affects the chemical composition and the physical, mechanical and swelling properties of Scots pine juvenile and mature wood (2024)
Journal Article
Broda, M., Popescu, C.-M., Poszwa, K., & Roszyk, E. (2024). How thermal treatment affects the chemical composition and the physical, mechanical and swelling properties of Scots pine juvenile and mature wood. Wood science and technology, 58(3), 1153-1180. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00226-024-01561-2

High variations in juvenile wood properties in the radial direction and its worse performance than mature wood make it less suitable for some applications and often treated as waste material. This study aimed to assess how thermal modification affect... Read More about How thermal treatment affects the chemical composition and the physical, mechanical and swelling properties of Scots pine juvenile and mature wood.

Active Cellulose-Based Food Packaging and Its Use on Foodstuff (2024)
Journal Article
Irimia, A., Grigoraș, V. C., & Popescu, C.-M. (2024). Active Cellulose-Based Food Packaging and Its Use on Foodstuff. Polymers, 16(3), Article 389. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym16030389

The essential role of active packaging is food quality improvement, which results in an extension of shelf life. Active packaging can also further enhance distribution from the origin point, and contributes to food waste reduction, offering greater s... Read More about Active Cellulose-Based Food Packaging and Its Use on Foodstuff.

Preparation of Elastomeric Nanocomposites Using Nanocellulose and Recycled Alum Sludge for Flexible Dielectric Materials (2022)
Journal Article
Sun, D., Saw, B. L., Onyianta, A. J., Wang, B., Wilson, C., O'Rourke, D., See, C. H., Popescu, C.-M., Dorris, M., Shyha, I., & Lu, Z. (2023). Preparation of Elastomeric Nanocomposites Using Nanocellulose and Recycled Alum Sludge for Flexible Dielectric Materials. Journal of Advanced Dielectrics, 13(01), Article 2242008. https://doi.org/10.1142/s2010135x22420085

Flexible dielectric materials with environmental-friendly, low-cost and high-energy density characteristics are in increasing demand as the world steps into the new Industrial 4.0 era. In this work, an elastomeric nanocomposite was developed by incor... Read More about Preparation of Elastomeric Nanocomposites Using Nanocellulose and Recycled Alum Sludge for Flexible Dielectric Materials.

Preparation of flexible dielectric nanocomposites using nanocellulose and recycled alum sludge for wearable technology applications (2022)
Journal Article
Sun, D., Saw, L., Onyianta, A., O'Rourke, D., Lu, Z., Wilson, C., See, C. H., Popescu, C., Dorris, M., & Shyha, I. (2022). Preparation of flexible dielectric nanocomposites using nanocellulose and recycled alum sludge for wearable technology applications. Materials, Methods & Technologies, 16, 149-159

With the rapid development of wearable technology, flexible dielectric materials with environmental-friendly, low-cost and high-energy efficiency characteristics are in increasing demand. In this work, a flexible dielectric nanocomposite was develope... Read More about Preparation of flexible dielectric nanocomposites using nanocellulose and recycled alum sludge for wearable technology applications.

Evaluation of the Effect of a Combined Chemical and Thermal Modification of Wood though the Use of Bicine and Tricine (2022)
Journal Article
Jones, D., Kržišnik, D., Hočevar, M., Zagar, A., Humar, M., Popescu, C.-M., Popescu, M.-C., Brischke, C., Nunes, L., Curling, S. F., Ormondroyd, G., & Sandberg, D. (2022). Evaluation of the Effect of a Combined Chemical and Thermal Modification of Wood though the Use of Bicine and Tricine. Forests, 13(6), Article 834. https://doi.org/10.3390/f13060834

The effects of thermal modification of wood have been well established, particularly in terms of reductions in mechanical performance. In recent years, there has been an increase in studies related to the Maillard reaction. More commonly associated w... Read More about Evaluation of the Effect of a Combined Chemical and Thermal Modification of Wood though the Use of Bicine and Tricine.

Effects of Biological and Chemical Degradation on the Properties of Scots Pine Wood—Part I: Chemical Composition and Microstructure of the Cell Wall (2022)
Journal Article
Broda, M., Popescu, C.-M., Curling, S. F., Ilie Timpu, D., & Ormondroyd, G. A. (2022). Effects of Biological and Chemical Degradation on the Properties of Scots Pine Wood—Part I: Chemical Composition and Microstructure of the Cell Wall. Materials, 15(7), Article 2348. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15072348

Research on new conservation treatment for archaeological wood requires large amounts of wooden material. For this purpose, artificial wood degradation (biological—using brown-rot fungus Coniophora puteana, and chemical—using NaOH solution) under lab... Read More about Effects of Biological and Chemical Degradation on the Properties of Scots Pine Wood—Part I: Chemical Composition and Microstructure of the Cell Wall.

Processing and characterisation of water hyacinth cellulose nanofibres-based aluminium-ion battery separators (2021)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Beg, M., Sun, D., Popescu, C.-M., Alcock, K. M., Onyianta, A. J., O'Rourke, D., Goh, K., & Yu, H. (2021, September). Processing and characterisation of water hyacinth cellulose nanofibres-based aluminium-ion battery separators. Presented at 2021 26th International Conference on Automation and Computing (ICAC), Portsmouth, United Kingdom

Water hyacinth is an invasive plant that can be converted to high value cellulose nanofibers. This study presents battery separators prepared from water hyacinth cellulose nanofibres (WHCNF) via a freeze-thawing crosslinking method, using polyethylen... Read More about Processing and characterisation of water hyacinth cellulose nanofibres-based aluminium-ion battery separators.

Correlation of Studies between Colour, Structure and Mechanical Properties of Commercially Produced ThermoWood® Treated Norway Spruce and Scots Pine (2021)
Journal Article
Torniainen, P., Popescu, C.-M., Jones, D., Scharf, A., & Sandberg, D. (2021). Correlation of Studies between Colour, Structure and Mechanical Properties of Commercially Produced ThermoWood® Treated Norway Spruce and Scots Pine. Forests, 12(9), Article 1165. https://doi.org/10.3390/f12091165

The thermal modification of wood has become the most-commonly commercialised wood modification process globally, with the ThermoWood® process currently being the most dominant. As with all commercial processes, there is a need to have a robust qualit... Read More about Correlation of Studies between Colour, Structure and Mechanical Properties of Commercially Produced ThermoWood® Treated Norway Spruce and Scots Pine.

Interactions between Different Organosilicons and Archaeological Waterlogged Wood Evaluated by Infrared Spectroscopy (2021)
Journal Article
Popescu, C.-M., & Broda, M. (2021). Interactions between Different Organosilicons and Archaeological Waterlogged Wood Evaluated by Infrared Spectroscopy. Forests, 12(3), Article 268. https://doi.org/10.3390/f12030268

The goal of the study was to characterise chemical interactions between waterlogged archaeological wood and organosilicon compounds applied for its conservation to shed lights on the mechanism of wood dimensional stabilisation by the chemicals. Two a... Read More about Interactions between Different Organosilicons and Archaeological Waterlogged Wood Evaluated by Infrared Spectroscopy.

High aspect ratio cellulose nanofibrils from macroalgae Laminaria hyperborea cellulose extract via a zero-waste low energy process (2020)
Journal Article
Onyianta, A. J., O’Rourke, D., Sun, D., Popescu, C.-M., & Dorris, M. (2020). High aspect ratio cellulose nanofibrils from macroalgae Laminaria hyperborea cellulose extract via a zero-waste low energy process. Cellulose, 27(14), 7997-8010. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-020-03223-5

Homogeneous high aspect ratio cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) were prepared from Laminaria hyperborea (LH) seaweed cellulose without any initial mechanical, biological or chemical pre-treatments. Fourier-transform infrared spectrophotometry revealed tha... Read More about High aspect ratio cellulose nanofibrils from macroalgae Laminaria hyperborea cellulose extract via a zero-waste low energy process.

A process for deriving high quality cellulose nanofibrils from Water hyacinth invasive species (2020)
Journal Article
Sun, D., Onyianta, A. J., O’Rourke, D., Perrin, G., Popescu, C.-M., Saw, L. H., Cai, Z., & Dorris, M. (2020). A process for deriving high quality cellulose nanofibrils from Water hyacinth invasive species. Cellulose, 27, 3727-3740. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-020-03038-4

In this study, surface chemistry, the morphological properties, water retention values, linear viscoelastic properties, crystallinity index, tensile strength and thermal properties of water hyacinth (WH) cellulose were correlated with the degree of m... Read More about A process for deriving high quality cellulose nanofibrils from Water hyacinth invasive species.

Structural characterization and mechanical properties of wet-processed fibreboard based on chemo-thermomechanical pulp, furanic resin and cellulose nanocrystals (2019)
Journal Article
Popescu, C.-M., Jones, D., Schalnat, J., Segerholm, K., Henriksson, M., & Westin, M. (2020). Structural characterization and mechanical properties of wet-processed fibreboard based on chemo-thermomechanical pulp, furanic resin and cellulose nanocrystals. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, 145, 586-593. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2019.12.199

Fibreboards are made of lignocellulosic fibres and synthetic adhesive which connect them. These synthetic adhesives, while relatively low-cost, are usually non-biodegradable and may cause health and environmental issues. Therefore, in recent years, t... Read More about Structural characterization and mechanical properties of wet-processed fibreboard based on chemo-thermomechanical pulp, furanic resin and cellulose nanocrystals.

Determination of the effectiveness of a combined thermal/chemical wood modification by the use of FT–IR spectroscopy and chemometric methods (2019)
Journal Article
Popescu, C., Jones, D., Kržišnik, D., & Humar, M. (2020). Determination of the effectiveness of a combined thermal/chemical wood modification by the use of FT–IR spectroscopy and chemometric methods. Journal of Molecular Structure, 1200, Article 127133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molstruc.2019.127133

In this study, the combined effects of chemical (with tricine and bicine) and thermal treatments were investigated. The modifications which appeared in the wood structure were evaluated by infrared spectroscopy and chemometric methods (principal comp... Read More about Determination of the effectiveness of a combined thermal/chemical wood modification by the use of FT–IR spectroscopy and chemometric methods.

Quantification of chemical changes taking place in spruce wood structure following long period thermal treatment (2019)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Popescu, C., Ridley-Ellis, D., & Popescu, M. (2019, August). Quantification of chemical changes taking place in spruce wood structure following long period thermal treatment. Paper presented at 2DCOS-10, The 10th International Symposium on Two-dimensional Correlation Spectroscopy, Changchun, China

Wood is a natural composite polymer containing different amounts of cellulose, lignin and hemicelluloses and some other low molecular compounds (i.e. extractives). Due to its structure wood is susceptible to degradation in the surrounding environment... Read More about Quantification of chemical changes taking place in spruce wood structure following long period thermal treatment.

Potential for estimating the age of instruments by characterisation of wood properties via acoustics. (2014)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Ridley-Ellis, D., & Popescu, C.-M. (2014, September). Potential for estimating the age of instruments by characterisation of wood properties via acoustics. Presented at WoodMusiCK (FP1302) conference ‘multidisciplinary approach to wooden musical instrument identification’

The performance of musical instruments is sensitive to several wood properties that are affected by aging. These wood properties also change with temperature and humidity in ways that interact with (and change as a result of) aging processes. This of... Read More about Potential for estimating the age of instruments by characterisation of wood properties via acoustics..

Stiffness changes during low temperature thermal treatment of Scots pine, assessed by acoustic NDT (2014)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Ridley-Ellis, D., Popescu, C.-M., Keating, B. A., Popescu, M.-C., & Hill, C. A. S. (2014, March). Stiffness changes during low temperature thermal treatment of Scots pine, assessed by acoustic NDT

The change, over time, in density, longitudinal modulus of elasticity, shear modulus and chemical structure of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) under thermal treatment (110, 120 and 140 C) was evaluated. The determinations of the specific changes were c... Read More about Stiffness changes during low temperature thermal treatment of Scots pine, assessed by acoustic NDT.