Characterization of Lignocellulosic Materials

Dr. THOMAS Q. HU is a Principal Scientist at FPInnovations - Paprican Division and an Adjunct Professor in the Chemistry Department at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He received his B.Sc. (1983) in Polymer Science and Engineering from South China Institute of Technology, and his M.Sc. (1988) and Ph.D. (1993) in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from UBC. He joined Paprican in 1994 after a two-year tenure there as an NSERC Canada Industrial Postdoctoral Fellow. His area of expertise is in the application of advanced, next-generation chemistry to solve various long-standing technological problems in the pulp and paper industry. He has pioneered the work in the novel modification of lignin functional groups, the development of fibre-reactive radical scavengers for the photostabilization of lignocellulosic materials, and the bleaching of lignin-rich wood pulps with phosphorus-based chemicals. He has developed a number of novel processes for the bleaching and brightness stabilization of lignin-rich wood pulps. He has over 70 publications including one edited book on Chemical Modification, Properties and Usage of Lignin, five issued international patents and several pending US and Canadian patents. He has won a number of prestigious awards including the 2004 Journal of Pulp and Paper Science Best Paper Award and the 2005 Pulp and Paper Technical Association of Canada Douglas Atack Award for Best Mechanical Pulping Paper. Contributors to the book:Dr. Umesh P. AgarwalDr. Mikhail BalakshinDr. S.M. BraatenDr. Ewellyn CapanemaDr. Richard P. ChandraDr. H. ChangDr. Y. R. ChenDr. N CordeiroDr. Ari R. EsteghlaliaDr. D.V. EvtuguinDr. Pedro FardimDr. G.E. FredheimDr. Goran GellerstedtDr. Wadood Y. HamadDr. Hyoe HatakeyamaDr. Tatsuko HatakeyamaDr. Bjarne HolmbornDr. S. HoritaDr. Akira IsogaiDr. Krista KoljonenDr. Ingvild KvienDr. R.A. LautenDr. Stu LeboDr. Kaichang LiDr. John A. LuDr. B.F. LutnaesDr. Sirkka Liisa MaunuDr. T.J. McNallyDr. B.O. MyroldDr. T. NanboDr. Kristiina OksmanDr. Ana Lucia OliveiraDr. T. OnishiDr. Sherely A. PaulDr. Laly A. PothenDr. John N. SaddlerDr. Simo SarkanenDr. Rauni SeppänenDr. A.J.D. SilvestreDr. Per SteniusDr. Sabu ThomasDr. Mikhail YanagisawaDr. Liming Zhang

• Part 1. Novel or Improved Methods for the Characterization of Wood, Pulp Fibres & Paper. 1) 2D heteronuclear (1H-13C) single quantum correlation (HSQC) NMR analysis of Norway spruce bark components.2) Raman Spectroscopic Characterization of Wood and Pulp Fibers.3) Surface characterization of mechanical pulp fibres by contact angle measurement, polyelectrolyte adsorption, XPS and AFM.4) Assessing Substrate Accessibility to Enzymatic Hydrolysis by Cellulases.5) Characterization of alkyl ketene dimmer-sized papers by XPS and dynamic contact angle measurements.6) Chemical Microscopy of Extractives on Fiber and Paper Surfaces.Part 2. Characterization of Cellulose, Lignin and Modified Cellulose Fibres.7) Deformation processes in cellulosics using Raman microscopy.8) Life-time prediction of cellulosics by thermal and mechanical analysis.9) Recent advances in the isolation and analysis of lignins and lignin-carbohydrate complexes.10) Chemical Composition and Lignin Structural Features of Banana Plant Leaf Sheath and Rachis.11) Recent advances in the characterization of lignosulfonates.12) Integrated size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) analysis of cellulose and its derivatives.13) 13C CPMAS NMR studies of wood, cellulose fibres and derivatives.Part 3. Characterization of Lignocelluloses-based Composites and Polymer Blends.14) Advances in the characterization of interfaces and the fiber surfaces in lignocellulosic fiber-reinforced composites.15) Thermal and mechanical analysis of lignocelluloses-based biocomposites.16) New insights into the mechanisms of compatibilization in wood-plastic composites.17) X-ray powder diffraction analyses of kraft lignin-based thermoplastic polymer blends.18) Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) of chemically cross-linked ethylcelluloses and ethylcellulose-methylcellulose blends.19) DSC and AFM studies on chemically cross-linked sodium cellulose sulfate hydrogels.20) Microscopic examination of cellulose whiskers and their nanocomposites