Abstract
Organic substances have been used for different wood treatments, especially impregnation procedures, aiming to improve certain wood properties. The objective of this study was to evaluate dimensional stability and colorimetric features for a mature pine wood (Pinus elliottii) impregnated by vacuum-pressure process with variable concentrations (10 wt%, 25 wt% and 50 wt%) of furfuryl alcohol (using ethyl alcohol as catalyst). The wood samples were characterized for: linear shrinkages, linear swellings, shrinkage anisotropy, swelling anisotropy, as well as colorimetric parameters (following the CIELab method). The impregnation with furfuryl alcohol increased the dimensional stability of the studied pine wood and the treatment with 50 wt% of furfuryl alcohol stood out based on these results. Regarding the colour patterns, there were changes in the final colorimetric appearances of the treated wood samples, which acquired darker and reddish colours when compared to the pristine group. The treatment with 50 wt% furfuryl alcohol again was responsible for the highest colour change and, because of that, may be indicated for solid wood products with high added value.
Highlights
Chemical modifications have been applied in solid woods to induce improvements in some of their chemical, hygroscopic and mechanical properties
Where: values between parentheses next to the means represent standard deviations and different letters in the columns indicate significant differences according to Fisher tests; βR is radial linear shrinkage; βT is tangential linear shrinkage; Caβ is shrinkage anisotropy; CV is coefficient of variation; SD is standard deviation; * is a significant difference at 0,05 of probability of error; ns is a not significant difference
Mantanis and Lykidis (2015) affirmed that the wood furfurylation leads to a decrease in the equilibrium moisture contentand,high improves in dimensional stability
Summary
Chemical modifications have been applied in solid woods to induce improvements in some of their chemical, hygroscopic and mechanical properties. The main reported wood treatments include: thermal treatments (heating under controlled time, atmosphere, and humidity), formalization (reaction with formaldehyde), and esterification (reaction with acetic anhydride, carboxyl acid, or isocyanate). In this context, the furfurylation (reaction with furfuryl alcohol (FFA) – C5H6O2) stands out, especially in Europe, wherein kebony® was developed. FFA is a non-toxic and non-flammable chemical substance. It can be produced from agricultural wastes, like sugar cane and corn cobs (Mantanis 2017). The furfurylated wood contains absolutely nontoxic constituents, its combustion did not release any volatile organic compounds or polyaromatic hydrocarbons above the normal levels for wood combustion and its leachates have shown no significant ecotoxicity (Mantanis 2017)
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