Abstract

This study examined the dynamic behavior of wood chemical components during the drying process using near infrared spectroscopy. Principal component analysis and generalized two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy were applied to identify significant absorption bands from the heavily overlapping near infrared spectra. The near infrared spectra were successively acquired over the moisture content range of 60–11%. The principal component analysis scores indicated that the wood–water interaction in the moisture content range of 60–46% significantly differed from that in the range of 45–11%. The synchronous 2D correlation spectrum constructed from the spectra in the moisture content range of 60–46% revealed that the cell wall components and water molecules responded to the drying process even though the wood exceeded the fiber saturation point. In the moisture content range of 45–11%, the H-bonded OH groups in the crystalline region of cellulose clearly increased with the decrease in bound water. Moreover, the sequential order of events was also clarified from the asynchronous spectrum.

© 2017 The Author(s)