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This review article introduces recent scientific and technical reports due to near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) at wood science and technology, most of which was published between 2006 and 2013. Many researchers reported that NIR technique was useful to detect multi traits of chemical, physical, mechanical and anatomical properties of wood materials although it was widely used in a state where characteristic cellular structure was retained. However, we should be sensitive and careful for application of NIRS, when spectra coupled with chemometrics presents unexpected good results (especially, for mechanical physical and anatomical properties). The real application for on-line or at-line monitoring in wood industry is desired as next step. Basic spectroscopic research for wooden material is also progressed. It should be a powerful and meaningful analytical spectroscopic tool.

The diffusion process of several molecules (D2O, n-butanol (OD) and t-butanol (OD)) in softwood (Sitka spruce) was investigated by means of a deuterium exchange method and Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) polarization spectroscopy. The location of OH groups in different states of order of cellulose in wood was clarified by analyzing the FT-NIR transmission spectra ranging from 7200 to 6000 cm(-1). Four absorption bands were assigned to 2 x v(OH) absorptions of the amorphous regions, OH groups in semi-crystalline regions, and two types of intramolecular hydrogen-bonded OH groups in the crystalline regions, respectively. The saturation level of accessibility was very different for these absorption bands (i.e., 70-80, 60, and 40-50% for the amorphous, semi-crystalline, and crystalline regions, respectively). However, the saturation accessibilities for each absorption band varied little with molecular structure and geometry of the diffusants. The diffusion rate of D2O was much faster than that of n-butanol (OD) and t-butanol (OD) for all states of orders. The size effect of the butanols led to slight differences in the diffusive transport in the crystalline regions.

Most of the important wood properties are highly variable among species and individuals, and even in the same stem. 1 this variation in wood properties is recognised as one of the greatest problems facing the wood industry, where rapid costeffective methods for measuring the properties are required to segregate log and lumber materials for appropriate end products. traditional methods employed to measure wood characteristics are time-consuming, expensive and often destructive. thus, several attempts have been made to quantify the woody materials by non-destructive techniques, such as mechanical, electromagnetic and acoustics, including ultrasonics and vibrational methods. 2 near infrared (nIr) spectroscopy, a fast growing technique for non-destructively evaluating organic materials, has found