Preliminary Study of Chemically Pretreated Densification of Juniper Wood for Use in Bone Implants

Kraft cooking of juniper wood with NaOH/Na2S aqueous solution has been used in the study for partial delignification at the temperature of 165°C for different residence time (0-40 min) following by thermal compression for densification under a pressure of 5 MPa at 100°C for 24 hours. The densified and natural juniper wood samples were characterized by chemical composition and mechanical properties. The results show that the density of densified juniper wood was increased by 96-127% reaching the value of 1170 kg/m3 that is similar to conventional bone implants (1090 kg/m3). Modulus of rupture and modulus of elasticity of densified juniper wood were increased by 85% and 621%, respectively, demonstrating a high potential of the material to be used as bone implants.