The elastic modulus of spruce wood cell wall material measured by an in situ bending technique

Using a novel in situ testing technique, the elastic modulus of wood cell wall material can be determined with great accuracy. The method relies on a focussed ion beam system (FIB) to prepare samples from individual structural components at a length scale which otherwise is hardly, if at all, accessible for testing. To determine the elastic modulus of cell wall material, cantilevers are cut with the FIB from wood cells for beam bending experiments inside the FIB or a scanning electron microscope (SEM). This type of sample preparation is site-specific and, at the same time, minimises the usual sample mounting problems. Once cut, the cantilever is tested by applying a known force with a piezoresistive AFM tip that is mounted on a micromanipulator. The resulting displacement is determined from SEM micrographs taken during the test. The cross-sectional area of the cantilever is determined for a number of positions along its length using the FIB as a cutting tool. Applying this method, we measured the elastic modulus of spruce wood cell wall material to be ~28 GPa.