Lignin Paradox: Selective Property Enhancement In Particleboard

Lignin Paradox: Selective Property Enhancement In Particleboard | 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 Lignin Paradox: Selective Property Enhancement In Particleboard Jozef Martinka, Charalampos Lykidis, Viktor Wallisch, Peter Rantuch, and 3 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8957070/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 8 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This study investigates the effect of incorporating additional lignin powder into particleboard (PB) on its mechanical performance and fire behaviour. Particleboards were manufactured from an industrial wood particle mixture bonded with phenol–formaldehyde (PF) resin using hot pressing at 7.8 MPa and 210 °C for a total pressing time of 4 min. Three board formulations were produced: control boards without lignin addition (PB-0L), boards containing 10 wt% added lignin powder (PB-10L), and boards containing 20 wt% added lignin powder (PB-20L). Fire performance was evaluated using a cone calorimeter under a heat flux of 50 kW·m⁻². In addition, artificial neural network (ANN) models were developed to predict the carbon monoxide release rate (CORR) and smoke production rate (SPR) based on selected cone calorimeter parameters. The results demonstrate that the incorporation of 20 wt% lignin powder significantly improves fire performance, leading to an almost threefold reduction in total carbon monoxide production, from 735 to 250 g·m⁻². Simultaneously, the modulus of elasticity increased substantially, from 1855 to 2639 N·mm⁻². Conversely, the addition of lignin negatively affected the internal bond strength, which decreased from 0.48 to 0.25 N·mm⁻². The developed ANN models exhibited high predictive accuracy, with normalized root mean square errors below 6% for CORR and approximately 2% for SPR. These findings indicate that lignin powder has strong potential as a sustainable additive for enhancing the fire performance and stiffness of particleboard, although optimization is required to mitigate its adverse effects on internal bonding. Cone calorimeter Fire performance Lignin Mechanical properties Neural networks Particle board Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files SupplementaryInformationA.rar SupplementaryInformationB.rar Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviews received at journal 30 Apr, 2026 Reviews received at journal 20 Apr, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 07 Apr, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 31 Mar, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 30 Mar, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 30 Mar, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 25 Feb, 2026 First submitted to journal 24 Feb, 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. 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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-8957070","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":615085148,"identity":"f70d895d-b22b-440a-9488-95bcab5b8ff8","order_by":0,"name":"Jozef Martinka","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jozef","middleName":"","lastName":"Martinka","suffix":""},{"id":615085149,"identity":"b35a7d87-d347-41ab-8eb7-27ebe954d5db","order_by":1,"name":"Charalampos Lykidis","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Aristotle University of Thessaloniki","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Charalampos","middleName":"","lastName":"Lykidis","suffix":""},{"id":615085150,"identity":"ff40358e-1985-4aad-888f-846ca27fc44c","order_by":2,"name":"Viktor Wallisch","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Czech University of Life Sciences Prague","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Viktor","middleName":"","lastName":"Wallisch","suffix":""},{"id":615085151,"identity":"2ab9d536-2a84-4117-a053-fbcb04f39871","order_by":3,"name":"Peter Rantuch","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Peter","middleName":"","lastName":"Rantuch","suffix":""},{"id":615085152,"identity":"e6ddc9c1-d5ba-4e5b-91de-f48de500228d","order_by":4,"name":"Tomáš Štefko","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA6UlEQVRIie2RsQrCMBBArwSuS6BrStBviHQRFPyVBsGtu1NxioO69zMKBcWtUOikuOpkxR+wW4UOBnRxibo55MFxHNzj7jgAi+WvISXATWehw5kZGukrM8AJOIkWflMI/UYZuQtZNxDHHqK8DttWbtyc1IlpCt1nnELBfIVFECkht8sQ/dSksCjlADkT57ni0UzINA/RqcxKdteLsVHpKt5vtXKoSP1BWTMKhAnEkgNq5RiCebHdfj2govCTEse9lQqCbXJRvul8d77KTs009jyFvappu52NNy7qpUF5It4q41csFovF8g0Pgr9KU1zukAAAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Tomáš","middleName":"","lastName":"Štefko","suffix":""},{"id":615085153,"identity":"8245c4c9-f86f-4404-8f9f-3e3e78b74a46","order_by":5,"name":"Igor Wachter","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Igor","middleName":"","lastName":"Wachter","suffix":""},{"id":615085154,"identity":"6360cf78-dfe5-411b-a6fc-0a23286c4b61","order_by":6,"name":"George I. 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