Manufacturing Functional Pulp Mold with Coniferous fallen leaves

The coniferous fallen leaf is one of the major forestry residues. Since the coniferous fallen leaf would not be easily decayed, the large amount of the coniferous fallen leaves in forestry could be the source of forest fire. The applicability of the fallen leaves to the pulp mold were evaluated for developing new utilization of coniferous fallen leaves. The morphological properties and the chemical composition of the fallen leaves of Pinus densiflora and Pinus koraiensis were evaluated by the comparison with those of fresh leaves. The applicability of the coniferous fallen leaves to the pulp mold and the effects on the pulp mold properties including the scent diffusion were investigated. The fallen leaves showed the shrunk structure by losing the hot water extract component, which leaded to better grinding properties than that of fresh leaves. The pulp mold with fallen leaves showed higher strength properties than the pulp mold with fresh leaves. Although the scent of the pulp mold with fresh leaves was stronger, the pulp mold with fallen leaves had coniferous scent too. The application of fallen leaves to pulp mold for the functional properties could be possible by improving the mechanical properties and the scent lasting treatments.