Nanoscale in Wood,Nanowood and Wood-Inorganic Nanocomposites

In order to introduce nano science and technology (NST) into the research field of wood science and technology, and promote the research of wood science and wood-inorganic composites to nanoscale, some new concepts, such as the nano space in wood, nano structure units of wood and nanowood are put forward in this paper based on the layer structure of wood cell wall and the pile-up model of its main components. Furthermore, the process of preparing nanowood is discussed, and wood-inorganic nanocom-posites may be operated in three ways with wood (matrix) and inorganic filler phase in 0-2, 0-3 or 2-3 dimensions respectively. The following results are obtained: (1) The nanoscale voids in wood indicate that wood has inherent space to accommodate nanosized materials, such as nanoparticles, nanotubes and nanosticks; (2) According to the size from top down, the nano structure units in wood can be classified as: nanolayers, nano CMF (cellulose microfibril) and matrix, nano crystallite units and cellulose chain clusters, and these can theoretically form nanowood; (3) The preparation of wood-inorganic nanocomposites can be operated on 0-2, 0-3 or 2-3 dimensions.