Organoclick: Applied Eco-Friendly and Metal-Free Catalysis for Wood and Fiber Modifications

This chapter provides a brief background to the research area of organocatalysis with respect to wood and fiber modification. It focuses on some of the examples of industrially produced materials from the chemical company OrganoClick AB, which employ organocatalytic reactions for modification, and to add new or improved functionalities to wood and natural fiber materials. The biomimetic activation of organic compounds via fundamental activation mechanisms is key in our efforts to create new functionally modified wood or fiber materials. There has been extensive research on the cross-linking of polysaccharides. The most common methods apply inorganic acids as catalysts for the cross-linking of the polysaccharide chains with low-molecular cross-linking agents, which are actually not eco-friendly. The novel materials could be of interest for the printing- or cellulose-based packaging industries. The OrganoWood process is based on mimicking the natural fossilization process in which wood is slowly transformed into mineral.