Influence of pre-treatment in citric acid solution on physical and mechanical properties of thermally compressed oil palm board

Oil palm trunk is an excellent raw material for thermally compressed wood board.However,improvements to dimensional stability during water absorption and reduced thickness swelling has been tied to losses in other mechanical properties,especially as the compression temperature is increased.Toward solving this trade-off,we analyzed the effects of a 48 h pre-soak in citric acid solutions(0,5,15,25,or 35%w/v in distilled water)on the physical and mechanical properties of oil palm board compressed at 140℃.The reference benchmark case was compressed at 200℃without pretreatment.The oil palm board raw materials were obtained from outer,middle and inner parts of trunk.The results showed that the oven-dry density of compressed oil palm board made from different parts of trunk increased with thermal compression(maximum pressure 12.26 MPa for 8 min).The citric acid pretreatment improved water absorption and thickness swelling properties of oil palm board thermally compressed at 140℃,consistent with the citric acid concentration.The carboxyl groups in citric acid cross-link with the hydroxyl groups in the wood.However,no significant difference was found between the benchmark(200℃)and pretreatments with 5 or 15%citric acid.The citric acid altered the wood chemistry during hot compressing at 140℃.Static bending strength,modulus of rupture(MOR),and modulus of elasticity(MOE)slightly decreased with the citric acid pretreatment,matching the effects of high temperature compression at 200℃.

High-temperature deformation resistance and creep resistance of a TiAl-based alloy fabricated by cold crucible directional solidification technology

In order to improve the high-temperature deformation resistance and creep resistance of TiAl-based alloys,cold crucible directional solidification(CCDS)technology was employed.Aβ-type TiAl-based alloy with the nominal composition of Ti44Al6Nb1Cr2V was prepared using the optimized CCDS parameters of 45 kW input power and 0.5 mm·min^-1 solidification rate.Thermo-compression testing was utilized to evaluate the hightemperature deformation resistance and creep resistance of the CCDS Ti44Al6Nb1Cr2V alloy.Results show that the CCDS Ti44Al6Nb1Cr2V alloy billets contain aligned columnar grains and a high percentage of small-angle lamellae.Thermo-compression testing results in the radial direction of the CCDS alloy show a much higher peak stress than other reported results in similar conditions.The much higher hardening exponent and deformation activation energy are obtained,corresponding to the excellent high-temperature deformation resistance and creep resistance,which are because of the hard-oriented grains,weaker stress-strain coordination capability of lamella structure and relatively more hysteretic dynamic recrystallization.Thermo-compression testing results in the longitudinal direction of the CCDS Ti44Al6Nb1Cr2V alloy show the much higher peak stress than that in the radial direction,indicating the better high-temperature deformation resistance and creep resistance attributed to the hard-oriented lamellae in this condition.

SOI-based radial-contour-mode micromechanical disk resonator

This paper reports a radial-contour-mode micromechanical disk resonator for radio frequency applications. This disk resonator with a gold plated layer as the electrodes, was prepared on a silicon-on-insulator wafer, which is supported by an anchor on another silicon wafer through Au-Au thermo-compression bonding. The gap between the disk and the surrounding gold electrodes is 100 nm. The radius of the disk is 20μm and the thickness is 4.5 μm. In results, the resonator shows a resonant frequency of 143 MHz and a quality factor of 5600 in vacuum