Breaking the tradition of "no formaldehyde, no glue", from "bookshelf" to "shelf", practicing new green and low-carbon wood materials!

Wood is a precious gift from nature to mankind. Since ancient times, people have used wood to make fire, paper, build houses, and make furniture. Wood carries the wisdom and culture of the Chinese nation for thousands of years and records the inheritance and evolution of human civilization. As an important resource on the earth that supports human survival and development, wood is a material with a bright future because of its abundant reserves, renewable nature, low processing energy consumption, and carbon fixation and storage. Vigorously developing and using wood materials is of great significance to achieving sustainable development and the goals of "carbon peak and carbon neutrality".

▲Xiao Shaoliang in the workshop

Focusing on green wood gluing, enhanced plasticization, low carbonization and high value-added utilization technologies, Professor Xiao Shaoliang of Northeast Forestry University has made many important progresses. He insists on integrating basic and applied research, from "bookshelves" to "shelves", developing and transforming key technologies urgently needed in the wood industry, enriching the product chain of new wood materials, and building a "bridge" between scientific research and industry - Xiao Shaoliang has been moving forward on the road of innovation.

Standing on the shoulders of giants

Xiao Shaoliang studied for his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees at Northeast Forestry University. Northeast Forestry University is one of the top agricultural and forestry universities in China. Adhering to the school motto of "learning from the heaven and earth, and being virtuous in harmony with nature", it has made outstanding contributions to my country's forestry education, ecological civilization construction and economic and social development.

Thanks to the school's platform advantages, Xiao Shaoliang had the opportunity to get involved in scientific research in his second year of undergraduate studies, and was fortunate to join the scientific research team of his mentor, Academician Li Jian. During this process, Xiao Shaoliang gained a new understanding of wood. "Learning and studying wood, an important ecological material, is of great significance to promoting the low-carbon revolution of wood products, ensuring wood safety, improving the quality of human life and sustainable social development." Xiao Shaoliang said. Speaking of his mentor, Academician Li Jian, Xiao Shaoliang was grateful: "Teacher Li is the person who changed my destiny. He taught me how to be a person, do things, and study. Especially in scientific research, he emphasized that outdated research methods and outdated topics should not be used anymore, and we should have the courage to break the routine and make original explorations."

In order to break the traditional formaldehyde-based bonding model of "no formaldehyde, no glue" in the wood-based panel industry, and realize the greening of the entire process of wood materials from processing to use. Inspired by the structure of mussel adhesive protein, that is, by simulating the adhesive protein secreted by mussels in the ocean, this protein can be firmly bonded to rocks or other substrates even in the presence of water. Studies have found that the catechol group in the protein plays a key adhesion role. Based on this, Academician Li Jian proposed the concept of bionic bonding. Under the guidance of his mentor, Xiao Shaoliang successfully developed a new type of environmentally friendly low-carbon adhesive - bionic adhesive - that is free of formaldehyde, benzene, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) through the principle of bionic synthesis, using green polyhydroxy compounds as the main raw material and water as the only solvent. "From taking over the project to obtaining key performance, my research made no progress for nearly three years. But by chance during an experiment, the resin glue in the glass reactor accidentally overflowed onto the heating table, and the transparent resin glue quickly changed into a black film, which became a water-resistant, insoluble and infusible substance after being peeled off. This process is similar to the curing process of common thermosetting adhesives. It is based on this new phenomenon observed by chance that we created the bionic adhesive. Because the research direction given by my mentor is a topic that no one has ever done before, it is highly adventurous. As an academician who was already in his 70s at the time, my mentor chose to guide me directly, and at the same time gave me full freedom and encouragement in the research of the topic, which allowed me to avoid detours while maximizing my ability to think independently and discover problems." Xiao Shaoliang said.

In 2018, funded by the China Scholarship Council, Xiao Shaoliang went to the University of Maryland to study with Professor Hu Liangbing's team. As a top research team in the field of sustainable wood fiber materials, Professor Hu Liangbing's team has outstanding achievements in cutting-edge wood research. During the one-year joint training at the University of Maryland, Xiao Shaoliang focused on wood reinforcement and plasticization, and published a cover article in Science as the first author. Related research breaks the limitation that wood is not easy to strengthen and have good processing and forming properties at the same time, so that wood can take into account excellent mechanical properties and good processing and forming properties of "metal/plastic", which greatly expands the application scope of wood in the engineering field, especially in high-end engineering fields with high requirements for strength and complex shape forming properties. It has good application prospects. Once the article was published, it was highly recognized by experts and scholars at home and abroad, and domestic and foreign media reported on it, which had an important international impact.

Xiao Shaoliang said that this scientific research experience had a great impact on him. "I learned from Professor Hu Liangbing how to maximize the power of the team to carry out scientific research efficiently, how to strive for excellence in scientific research, and how to dig deeper into scientific problems." The process from starting the research to publishing the article was extremely difficult, and an accidental move brought him an unexpected surprise: in an experiment, in order to improve the efficiency of the experiment, Xiao Shaoliang threw the fixed curved wood into the water to soften it so that it could be reshaped into other shapes. This unintentional move made him make a new discovery, that is, after the wood is dried and fixed, and then soaked in water again, its plasticizing properties will be greatly improved, and it will not break even if it is folded in half, giving the wood folding properties. "Scientific research is an innovative process, full of uncertainty, and cannot be carried out as planned. Having interest, curiosity and the quality of being good at grasping new phenomena are the keys to discovering and creating new materials." Xiao Shaoliang said.

Write the paper on the land of the motherland

"Write papers on the land of the motherland". Adhering to the world's scientific and technological frontiers, the main battlefield of the economy, the major needs of the country, and the people's life and health, this has always been Xiao Shaoliang's original intention of scientific research. Xiao Shaoliang believes that the implementation and transformation of scientific research results is an important link in achieving technological innovation and national development. Researchers who take into account both basic and applied research will help better promote the implementation and transformation of scientific research results.

Xiao Shaoliang introduced that my country is a country with a shortage of forests and timber, especially high-quality timber. Its external dependence is far higher than the timber safety warning line, but fast-growing timber and timber processing residues are abundant. How to achieve efficient and high value-added utilization of wood resources is of great significance to alleviating the contradiction between wood supply and demand in my country and ensuring timber safety. Gluing is one of the most effective means to achieve efficient utilization of wood resources, which can be called "afforestation without planting trees". However, since most of the adhesives used in existing gluing technology contain formaldehyde, there is an inevitable risk of free formaldehyde or volatile organic pollutants being released when producing and using wood products. With the improvement of national environmental protection standards and people's increasing attention to health, the scientific research of formaldehyde-free green adhesives has always received great attention from academia and industry. The bionic gluing topic is proposed to address the global problem of free formaldehyde and volatile organic pollutants in existing wood-based panel technology. This direction takes into account the needs of cutting-edge basic research and extensive market applications.

Since 2018, Xiao Shaoliang (from the first year of his doctoral studies - he stayed at the school to teach after graduation) has been focusing on the implementation and transformation of major key technologies in the field of formaldehyde-free, environmentally friendly, low-carbon artificial board manufacturing with Shandong Xingang Group under the guidance of his mentor, Academician Li Jian. So far, the relevant technologies have achieved mass production of formaldehyde-free bionic adhesives, mass production of plywood, continuous large-scale production of 300,000 cubic meters of ultra-strong particleboard and 180,000 cubic meters of ultra-thin fiberboard per year, and achieved mass production of three major artificial boards. This technology not only achieves zero formaldehyde addition in the product, but more importantly, it is expected to overcome the green and pollution-free technology of the entire life cycle of existing artificial boards from manufacturing to consumer terminals, allowing the entire industrial chain of artificial boards to enter a new era of health, which is in line with the national "dual carbon" strategy and the "Healthy China 2030" planning outline.

"Taking enterprises as the main body of innovation and the market as the orientation, and utilizing the collaborative innovation model of government, industry, academia, research and application, we can not only accelerate the implementation and transformation of cutting-edge basic theoretical and technological achievements, but also help discover new scientific problems and promote basic theoretical research in the process of technology transformation, thereby achieving the coordinated development of basic and applied research." Xiao Shaoliang said.

Cultivate morality and keep original aspirations

Xiao Shaoliang studied at Northeast Forestry University and officially joined his alma mater after graduation. In his heart, education is a great cause. He hopes to inherit the philosophy of his mentor, Academician Li Jian, who taught and learned from each other, and become a guide for students. He always bears in mind the responsibilities of college teachers in the new era, and takes "educating people for the Party and cultivating talents for the country" as his original mission.

In teaching and training students, Xiao Shaoliang will teach students in accordance with their characteristics and adopt different training methods. From his own learning experience, he often gives students some suggestions. He encourages students to contact as many outstanding people as possible and learn from them; guides students to make full use of the advantages of the platform, make more attempts, and set short-term and long-term goals as early as possible; urges students to read more, improve their self-study ability, maintain their love of life and curiosity about new things, and spend time exercising. "The teacher's responsibility is not only to impart knowledge to students, but more importantly to stimulate students' curiosity and creativity." Xiao Shaoliang said. For him, the happiest thing is to see the progress and growth of students.

In the future, Xiao Shaoliang will continue to focus on the major strategic needs of the country's wood safety, energy conservation and emission reduction, and green manufacturing. From the perspectives of "sustainable utilization" and "circular economy", he will continue to focus on green gluing, wood enhancement and plasticization, high value-added utilization and low-carbon technology, and adapt to the trend of green, low-carbon, enhanced and multifunctional wood products, in order to make new progress in technological innovation, and create more new wood materials through cooperation between government, industry, academia, research and application, so as to meet the people's growing needs for a better life.