Liquid Wood Rheology

Liquid wood is a biopolymer composite exhibiting a lignin matrix. Lignin is separated as a by-product of paper. Following research by German scientists from a production company, an invention was made that determines a new use of lignin, the capitalization of said product in this case being superior. This material combines lignin with other natural substances: resins, waxes, vegetable fibres etc. It results a polymer that exhibits certain physic-chemical properties which recommend it for large scale use, being able to substitute plastic materials. Some of the properties of liquid wood are: it is a thermo-injectable polymer, it is obtained from renewable resources and it is biodegradable. Existing injection or extruding machines, used for synthetic polymers such as polyethylene and polypropylene, can be employed to obtain various liquid wood parts. It has been observed that injection process parameters influence mechanical and physic chemical properties of products obtained from liquid wood. In order to find the optimal injection parameters for an object that exhibits certain mechanical and physic - chemical properties, it is necessary to determine the rheological properties of liquid wood. In this paper, several liquid wood rheological properties have been determined, in order to assist the optimization of the injection process.