Effect of furfurylation treatment on technological properties of short rotation teak wood

Abstract

Short rotation teak wood has low quality especially in dimensional stability and durability. Furfurylation treatment was applied to improve technological properties of the short rotation teak wood. The purpose of the study was to improve dimensional stability and durability through furfurylation treatment. Short rotation teak sapwoods (Plus Perhutani and Biotrop teaks) were treated through the impregnation process of 45% of furfuryl alcohol (FA) and 5% of tartaric acid as catalyst followed by heated in oven at 120 °C for 16 h under nitrogen atmosphere. Dimensional stability was characterized by volumetric swelling, anti-swelling efficiency (ASE), water uptake (WU), and bulking effect (BE), meanwhile decay durability was determined by the weight loss (WL). The results show that ASE increased in the average of 64%, WU decreased in the average of 59%, and BE increased in the average of 11%, which indicated the improvement of dimensional stability. Weight losses of furfurylated teak woods due to fungal decay of Coriolus versicolor (CV), Pycnoporus sanguineus (PS), and Coniophora puteana (CP) were in the average of 2%, 1%, and 1%, respectively, which categorized their durability to be class 1 (very durable). The increase of lignin content showed by Klason lignin content measurement and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and Carbon 13 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (13C NMR) analysis indicated that the reaction of FA with lignin occurred after furfurylation treatment. Furfurylated sapwood presented also better thermic stability compared to untreated wood by Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA). The FA treatment can be applied for improving the quality of short rotation teaks for high quality wood product utilization.