Woodceramics prepared from basswood powder and phenolic resin

A new woodceramics was fabricated from bass wood powder and phenolic resin. Thermogravimetric analysis(TGA) was applied to reveal the pyrolysis behaviors of wood powder and phenolic resin. Scanning electron microscope(SEM) and X-ray diffraction(XRD) were employed to characterize and analyze the microstructures and phase identification of woodceramics. The effects of carbonization temperature and content of phenolic resin on the apparent porosity, volume electrical resistivity and bending strength of woodceramics were discussed, respectively. The results show that woodceramics is a kind of composite of porous amorphous carbon from wood powder and glassy carbon from phenolic resin, and is not composed of a completely graphitized carbon structure but has a turbostratic structure. With the increase in the carbonization temperature, apparent porosity and bending strength increase, while volume electrical resistivity decreases. The broad(002) peak gradually becomes sharper, and the(002) interplanar spacing becomes smaller. However, when content of phenolic resin increases, no detectable changes of the broad(002) peak and the(002) interplanar spacing take place. The apparent porosity, bending strength, and volume electrical resistivity of woodceramics prepared from wood powder/phenolic resin composite in a ratio of 100:160 by weight carbonized at 1350°C are about 50%, 25 MPa, and 2.0 ×10^-2 Ω·cm, respectively.