EFFECT OF HEAT TREATMENT ON CELLULOSE CRYSTALLITES OF WOOD.

It has been well recognized that the crystalline regions of high-molecular-weight polymers such as cellulose include considerable disorder. The recently developed crystal-defect concept suggests that the disorder may cause the diffuse scattering also originating from the amorphous regions. Consequently, in order to obtain a better understanding of the heat-induced increase in degree of crystallinity of wood, the disorder effect should be taken into consideration. In this research Hosemann's method was used to determine the size and distortion of cellulose crystallites of wood in both the normal and parallel directions to the molecular chain, and the mechanism of crystallization caused by heat treatment was investigated. From the results, some information on paracrystalline regions of wood cellulose was derived.