Facile preparation of high anti-fungal performance wood by high voltage electrostatic field (HVEF)

Abstract

In this study, in order to improve the anti-fungal performance of wood material, a facile, efficient and eco-friendly method was proposed for wood modification under the synergistic effect of silver particles and high voltage electrostatic field (HVEF) treatment. Poplar wood, a vulnerable to decay species, was hot-pressed by silver electrode plates and exposed simultaneously to HVEF. The chemical characteristics and anti-fungal performance of treated wood were investigated in details. Under HVEF treatment, silver particles were triggered to different oxidized forms and bound with polar groups in the wood cell wall. Decreased O/C element ratio and –OH groups and increased C–H and C=O bonds in treated wood were observed by the X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) and fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. After 24h of HVEF treatment, high concentration (10.71%) of well-distributed silver particles appeared in mapping graphs. Laboratory anti-fungal tests showed that mass losses of treated wood samples decreased significantly (<1%) after exposing to rot fungi. The highest leaching percentage of silver in treated samples was 3.94%. These results indicated that the synergistic effect of silver particles and HVEF treatment enhanced the fungal-resistance performance of wood. Moreover, this approach could be regarded as a facile, efficient and eco-friendly modification to broaden the outdoor-use potential of wood.