Alumina-modified carbonized wood-based materials: Excellent thermal conductivity and bacterial growth inhibition

We prepared an alumina-modified carbonized wood composite material by the sol-gel method, achieving the simultaneous improvement in thermal conductivity, self-extinguishing behavior, and bacterial growth inhibition performance. Microscopic and spectroscopic characterizations confirmed the successful incorporation of alumina into the carbonized wood framework, while the deposited particles became more pronounced with increasing alumina loading. In the material weight loss test, at a temperature of 600°C, the weight loss of alumina-modified composites was 2.7% , while that of the unmodified material was 12.5%. The thermal conductivity of the alumina-modified composite is significantly higher than that of the unmodified one, reaching a maximum of 0.825 W·m -1 ·K -1 , which is 476.9% higher than that of carbonized wood. For this series of composites, the bacterial growth inhibition is stronger before filtration than after filtration. The apparent bacterial growth inhibition rate of the alumina-modified composite before filtration can reach up to 80.94%, which is 143% higher than that of carbonized wood before filtration. The modified materials obtained in this work overcome the shortcomings of natural wood in terms of poor thermal stability and weak bacterial growth inhibition performance. As a result, they not only extend the service life of wood, expand its application scope, but also make up for the deficiency of traditional carbonized wood in bacterial growth inhibition performance.