Changes in Populus sp. wood subjected to heat treatment: anatomy and silica content

doi:10.3832/ifor4549-018

Changes in Populus sp. wood subjected to heat treatment: anatomy and silica content

Ana Clara Cobas^(1-2) , Miguel Antonio Tortoriello⁽¹⁾, Patricio Germán Arrien⁽¹⁾

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 18, Issue 4, Pages 223-226 (2025)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor4549-018
Published: Aug 09, 2025 - Copyright © 2025 SISEF

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Heat treatment of wood is a widely used process in the timber industry, particularly in European countries, involving controlled high temperatures to improve the physical and chemical properties of wood. This study analyzes the effects of heat treatment on the anatomy (fiber lumen and vessel diameter) and silica content of Populus deltoides wood (“Stoneville 67”), cultivated in Junín, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) microphotographs reveal an increase in fiber collapse with rising temperature (from 80 to 200 °C) and exposure time (from 60 to 120 minutes). Treatment at 200 °C for 60 minutes shows a notable increase in silica content (from 0.3% to 0.53%), which may positively influence the surface hardness of poplar wood, resulting in an improvement in this property.

Keywords

Poplar, Fiber Collapse, Wood Hardness, Fiber Lumen

Authors’ address

(1)

0000-0001-7507-4264
0000-0001-7468-639x
0009-0009-3332-1760
Laboratorio de Ensayos de Materiales y Estructuras, Universidad Nacional del Noroeste de Buenos Aires, CIC, Sarmiento 1169, Junín, Bs. As. (Argentina)

(2)

0000-0001-7507-4264
Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Godoy Cruz 2290 (C1425FQB) CABA (Argentina)

Corresponding author

Ana Clara Cobas
accobas@comunidad.unnoba.edu.ar

Citation

Cobas AC, Tortoriello MA, Arrien PG (2025). Changes in Populus sp. wood subjected to heat treatment: anatomy and silica content. iForest 18: 223-226. - doi: 10.3832/ifor4549-018

Academic Editor

Paola Cetera

Paper history

Received: Dec 26, 2023
Accepted: Mar 24, 2025

First online: Aug 09, 2025
Publication Date: Aug 31, 2025
Publication Time: 4.60 months

Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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