Improving whiteness fastness and antibacterial properties of bleached african white sycamore veneer by firm loading of ZnO particles dispersed via PVA

Improving whiteness fastness and antibacterial properties of bleached african white sycamore veneer by firm loading of ZnO particles dispersed via PVA | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Improving whiteness fastness and antibacterial properties of bleached african white sycamore veneer by firm loading of ZnO particles dispersed via PVA Yuxi Wang, Xueyu Liu, Yalu Yun, Lijuan Wang, Hong Shen This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9385168/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 7 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The solution prepared with distilled water results in a costly bleaching and the bleached wood easily turns to yellow under illumination of sunlight. In this study, african white sycamore veneer (AWV) was bleached with alkaline H 2 O 2 to achieve an optimal whiteness, and then loaded nano ZnO dispersed in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) solution to improve whiteness fastness and shedding resistance. The optimum bleaching effect was achieved under 1.2% H 2 O 2 and 0.10 mol/L NaOH in tap water at 60°C for 4 h. PVA enhanced the adhesion of nano ZnO, and treated bleached African white sycamore veneer (BAWV) showed an 89.04% rise in ∆L and a 53.75% and reduction in ∆E as PVA was added from 0 to 4%. With 4% PVA added and PDI below 0.4, the nano-dispersion exhibited the optimal uniformity. The FTIR and XRD results indicated that the crystal structure of nano ZnO remained unchanged with good compatibility in the components. More uniform deposition of nano ZnO inside the wood was observed in SEM with the increase of PVA. In addition, the diameter of the inhibition zone of treated BAWV against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus could reach 1.74 cm and 1.98 cm respectively, indicating stronger antibacterial activity under light irradiation. This study demonstrates the potential of PVA as a dispersant to carry nanoparticles into wood and improve its whiteness fastness and antibacterial properties. African white sycamore veneer Bleach Dispersion of nano ZnO Whiteness fastness Shedding resistance Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files Onlinefloatimage1.png Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviews received at journal 15 May, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 25 Apr, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 24 Apr, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 15 Apr, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 15 Apr, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 13 Apr, 2026 First submitted to journal 11 Apr, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9385168","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":627795727,"identity":"a7b146fd-d1de-40b9-88fc-95d562857a45","order_by":0,"name":"Yuxi Wang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Northeast Forestry University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yuxi","middleName":"","lastName":"Wang","suffix":""},{"id":627795728,"identity":"f668d749-73fa-463f-aff2-fe7ccab0f4f3","order_by":1,"name":"Xueyu Liu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Dehua TUBAO New Decoration Material Co., 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In this study, african white sycamore veneer (AWV) was bleached with alkaline H\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003eO\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003e to achieve an optimal whiteness, and then loaded nano ZnO dispersed in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) solution to improve whiteness fastness and shedding resistance. The optimum bleaching effect was achieved under 1.2% H\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003eO\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003e and 0.10 mol/L NaOH in tap water at 60\u0026deg;C for 4 h. PVA enhanced the adhesion of nano ZnO, and treated bleached African white sycamore veneer (BAWV) showed an 89.04% rise in ∆L and a 53.75% and reduction in ∆E as PVA was added from 0 to 4%. With 4% PVA added and PDI below 0.4, the nano-dispersion exhibited the optimal uniformity. The FTIR and XRD results indicated that the crystal structure of nano ZnO remained unchanged with good compatibility in the components. More uniform deposition of nano ZnO inside the wood was observed in SEM with the increase of PVA. In addition, the diameter of the inhibition zone of treated BAWV against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus could reach 1.74 cm and 1.98 cm respectively, indicating stronger antibacterial activity under light irradiation. This study demonstrates the potential of PVA as a dispersant to carry nanoparticles into wood and improve its whiteness fastness and antibacterial properties.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Improving whiteness fastness and antibacterial properties of bleached african white sycamore veneer by firm loading of ZnO particles dispersed via PVA","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-04-23 19:53:56","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9385168/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2026-05-15T05:05:19+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"53716090562921491466770757324116357374","date":"2026-04-26T00:52:07+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"117678209236810707527366229759424119118","date":"2026-04-24T08:11:01+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2026-04-15T11:47:06+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2026-04-15T11:45:21+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2026-04-13T12:09:12+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"European Journal of Wood and Wood Products","date":"2026-04-11T06:23:06+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"european-journal-of-wood-and-wood-products","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"harw","sideBox":"Learn more about [European Journal of Wood and Wood Products](http://link.springer.com/journal/107)","snPcode":"107","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/107/3","title":"European Journal of Wood and Wood Products","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"697068e8-eb48-4f19-934e-e8f33c1d0399","owner":[],"postedDate":"April 23rd, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2026-05-15T05:05:19+00:00","index":17,"fulltext":""}],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-04-23T19:53:56+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-04-23 19:53:56","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-9385168","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-9385168","identity":"rs-9385168","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}