Eco-Friendly Wood Composites: Design, Characterization and Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Traditional wood composites are produced with synthetic, formaldehyde-based adhesives, commonly made from fossil-derived constituents, such as urea, phenol, melamine, etc. Along with their undisputable advantages, these adhesives are characterized by certain problems, connected with the emission of hazardous volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including free formaldehyde emission from the finished wood composites, which is carcinogenic to humans and harmful to the environment. The growing environmental concerns, connected with the adoption of circular economy principles, and the new, stricter legislative requirements for the emission of harmful VOCs, e.g., free formaldehyde, from wood composites, have posed new challenges to researchers and industrial practice, related to the development of sustainable, eco-friendly wood composites, optimization of the available lignocellulosic raw materials, and use of alternative resources. The harmful formaldehyde release from wood composites can be reduced by adding formaldehyde scavengers to conventional adhesive systems, by surface treatment of finished wood composites, or by using novel bio-based wood adhesives as environmentally-friendly alternatives to traditional thermosetting resins. Another alternative to the use of synthetic formaldehyde-based adhesives is the manufacture of binderless wood composites since wood is a natural polymer material which is rich in lignocellulosic compounds such as cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. 

This Special Issue on “Eco-friendly Wood Composites: Design, Characterization and Applications” is aimed at collecting high-quality original research and review articles on topics including (but not limited to) the latest approaches in the development of eco-friendly wood composites; sustainable, bio-based wood adhesives; approaches to reduce formaldehyde emission from wood composites; binderless wood composites; wood plastic composites (WPC); advanced processes for recycling wood-based composites; thermal and chemical technologies for enhanced protection of wood and wood composites; application of nanomaterials to wood composites; valorization of bark for value-added chemicals and production of wood composites; non-wood lignocellulosic composites; advanced functionalities and application of wood composites.

We strongly encourage contributions from wood scientists and experts from all related fields in the form of original research works or review articles.  

Prof. Dr. Pavlo Bekhta
Dr. Petar Antov
Dr. Yonghui Zhou
Prof. Dr. Viktor Savov
Guest Editors

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