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영어

In this study, we examined the effect of particle size and heat treatment on the crystal transformation of wood cellulose during alkaline swelling. We used wood flours which have different size as 40mesh, 60mesh, 100mesh, 200mesh and wood chips from Paulownia tomentosa for the samples. Control and heat-treated samples at 100℃ and 200℃ were treated with 15% NaOH solution for 10 minutes, and followed by washing with distilled water and dried at room temperature. We observed the morphology of wood samples using an optical microscope, and compared the relative crystallinity and crystal width before and after alkali -treatment and heat-treatment using an X-ray diffraction method. During alkali swelling after heat-treatment, the crystal transformation of cellulose I to cellulose II was also investigated. By alkali treatment, the color of the wood samples tended to be dark, and the alkali-treated samples shrank more than the untreated samples. The relative crystallinity of wood cellulose decreased with decreasing particle size of wood flours and slightly increased with increasing temperature, and the crystal width was not significantly different. Also, heat-treated samples were easily transformed to cellulose II structure compared to control samples.