Is it possible to melt wood?

[Fishkins]

What would happen if you heated wood in a vacuum?

[YT2095]

you`d distill off the volatile organics and leave charcoal and ash behind.

look up "Wood Gas".

[CaptainPanic]

The reaction that approaches "melting" the most because it's the transistion from solid wood to a liquid is called "pyrolysis". But it's not melting, because there are many reactions going on, and the majority of the biological polymers (cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin) are falling apart. The product is even liquid at room temperature, although the reaction typically takes place between 400-600 degrees Celsius.

[pioneer]

Theoretically, if we could alter the strength of hydrogen bonding, than wood would liquify. What we see in wood is based on the current strength that hydrogen bonds form in nature. What is interesting, if the strength had turned out less or more the world would be different. Below is a little table to shows how if nature had define this bond, even slightly differently, the impact on life would be devastating.

 

http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/water/index2.html

 

Effect of H-bond strength on water's physical properties

% Change in H-bond strength Effect at 37°C

 

Decrease 29% Water boils at 37C.

Decrease 18% Most proteins heat denature

Decrease 11% K+ becomes kosmotropic (forms order in water)

Decrease 7% pKw up 3 (neutral water is a base)

Decrease 5% CO2 70% less soluble

Decrease 5% O2 27% less soluble

Decrease 2% No density maximum

No change No effect

Increase 2% Significant metabolic effects

Increase 3% Viscosity increase 23% (water is a syrup)

Increase 3% Diffusivity reduced by 19%

Increase 5% O2 270% more soluble

Increase 5% CO2 440% more soluble

Increase 7% pKw down 1.7 (neutral water is an acid)

Increase 11% Na+ becomes chaotropic (messes up Na+ pumps)

Increase 18% Water freezes at 37C.

Increase 51% Most proteins cold denature (enzymes can't work)

 

[YT2095]

it still wouldn`t happen in a Vacuum as outlined in the OP.

[John Cuthber]

Hang on a minute. A lot of those numbers don't mean a lot.

Most proteins would denature. Most proteins that eveolved in water with the real value of the strength of the hydrogen bond denature. What about ones that eveolved in this hypothetial "weird water" with a different H bond strength?

 

"K+becomes kosmotropic"

So biology would have had to evolve to use something other than K+ or it would have evolved to cope with K+ being kosmotropic.

Life would be different- I would have had to learn a different set of amino acids in biology perhps- DNA might have had to rely on another sugar rather than DNA but to say "the impact on life would be devastating." simply fails to take account of reallity. The only one that would matter much is that the maximum density makes life easier for aquatic organisms.

 

That graph means even less.

Of course the lines all cross zero at the same point, that's how the y axis is scaled.

[tvp45]

Charcoal?