Dimensional stability and hardness improvement of southern yellow pine wood using divinylbenzene dioxide

Abstract

Wood is commonly used as a construction material for floors, outdoor decks, house framing, bridges etc. However, the dimensional instability of wood has limited its use in these and other applications. This is due in part to the constant adsorption and release of water which results in swelling and shrinking leading to the physical degradation of the wood (Kumar 1994). A variety of treatment methods has been developed in an attempt to improve the hardness, stability, stiffness, and dimensional stability of wood. However, many of these methods are not economic or commercially scalable. There still exists a need for a commercially viable wood treating technology which will provide increased dimensional stability and hardness. This article details a wood treating method using a difunctional epoxide cured with a catalyst at low temperature inside of the wood to prepare a wood polymer composite (WPOC). Analysis by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and micro infrared spectroscopy (micro IR) showed the epoxy resin was distributed uniformly throughout the wood including the cell wall. The epoxide treated wood compared to untreated wood showed improvements in hydrophobicity (water repellency), anti-swelling efficiency (ASE) as a measure of dimensional stability, hardness, and three-point bending dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) properties.