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In recent years, with the development of green environmental protection, starch film has become of interest due to the wide availability of sources, low price, and biodegradability. Amylose/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) blend films crosslinked with different amounts of glutaraldehyde (GLU) were prepared by a solution casting method. The cross-linking degree, water sorption, tensile property, crystallization and section morphology of the films were examined. With the increase in glutaraldehyde concentration, the cross-linking degree of the blend film was improved. The wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) result indicated that cross-linking hindered the crystallization of film. The section morphology of films was examined by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results showed that the cross-linking degree of amylose film improved while the crystallinity decreased with the increase in glutaraldehyde content. Cross-linking had no obvious effect on the water sorption property of the blend films. The cross-linking modification significantly enhanced the tensile strength and Young’s modulus, while it reduced the elongation at break of the blend films. It was found that the film with 0.5 wt % glutaraldehyde possessed the best performance: the tensile strength increased by 115%, while the elongation at break decreased by 18% even at high relative humidity (RH) of 90% compared to non-crosslinked films. The developed amylose/PVA blend films have promising application prospects as agricultural mulch films and packaging materials.

Crystallinity is an essential indicator for evaluating the quality of fiber materials. Terahertz spectroscopy technology has excellent penetrability, no harmful substances, and commendable detection capability of absorption characteristics. The terahertz spectroscopy technology has great application potential in the field of fiber material research, especially for the characterization of the crystallinity of cellulose. In this work, the absorption peak of wood cellulose, microcrystalline cellulose, wood nano cellulose, and cotton nano cellulose were probed in the terahertz band to calculate the crystallinity, and the result compared with XRD and FT-IR analysis. The vibration model of cellulose molecular motion was obtained by density functional theory. The results showed that the average length of wood cellulose (WC) single fiber was 300 μm. The microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) was bar-like, and the average length was 20 μm. The cotton cellulose nanofiber (C-CNF) was a single fibrous substance with a length of 50 μm, while the wood cellulose nanofiber (W-CNF) was with a length of 250 μm. The crystallinity of cellulose samples in THz was calculated as follows: 73% for WC, 78% for MCC, 85% for W-CNF, and 90% for C-CNF. The crystallinity values were obtained by the three methods which were different to some extent. The absorption peak of the terahertz spectra was most obvious when the samples thickness was 1 mm and mixed mass ratio of the polyethylene and cellulose was 1:1. The degree of crystallinity was proportional to the terahertz absorption coefficients of cellulose, the five-movement models of cellulose molecules corresponded to the five absorption peak positions of cellulose.

Super-hydrophobic phenomena generally exist in nature, and wood can also obtain hydrophobicity by specific processing on the surface, being like the construction of microscale rough surface or decoration with low surface energy materials. In this research, the formation of hydrophobic layers on wood surface was investigated without breaking the wood’s original structure. The core-shell structure particles were prepared by penetrating orthosilicate and polystyrene into the hollow mesoporous microsphere structure with tetrahydrofuran. A wood sample was coated with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) resin layer to enhance the adhesion of nano and micron hollow mesoporous microsphere on its surface. According to the surface structure of super-hydrophobic subjects in nature, the nano and micron hollow mesoporous microsphere were sprayed with different ratios several times to form a hydrophobic surface. The water contact angle could reach 150°, revealing that the hydrophobic behavior of the nano and micron hollow mesoporous microsphere coating was achieved. The microstructures of wood samples were examined by the scanning electron microscopy, and the chemical functional groups were investigated by the Fourier transform infrared; both verified that the hydrophobic surface was successfully coated. The thermogravimetric examination revealed the improved thermal stability of the hydrophobic wood. The scratch test was used to measure the abrasion resistance of the nano and micron hollow mesoporous microsphere coatings on wood surface. It was suggested that the nano and micron hollow mesoporous microsphere coating was an effective method to fabricate extremely hydrophobic wood products.

An eco-friendly and novel water treatment material was synthesized using sodium lignosulfonate modified polystyrene (SLPS), which can be used to eliminate phenols in aqueous solution. SLPS was characterized by BET, FTIR, SEM, and EDS. The effect of the initial pH value, phenol content, adsorption time, and temperature on the absorbability of phenol in SLPS was investigated through adsorption experiments. It was found that SLPS could efficiently adsorb phenol in aqueous solution at a pH value of about 7. The test results revealed that the kinetic adsorption and isotherm adsorption could be successfully described using the pseudo second-order and Langmuir models, respectively. It was illustrated that the phenol adsorption on SLPS was dominated by chemisorption and belonged to monolayer adsorption. The max. phenol adsorption value of SLPS was 31.08 mg/g at 30 °C. Therefore, SLPS displayed a great potential for eliminating phenol from polluted water as a kind of novel and effective adsorbent.