Abstract
The color of maritime pine wood is a critical parameter for manufacturing high added value materials (wood flooring or wood paneling for indoor applications). Actually, the color inhomogeneity between heartwood (Hw) and sapwood (Sw) can lead to a depreciation of the wood value and, therefore, to financial losses for wood products companies. In this article, the development of a color homogenization process based on alkaline hydrogen peroxide chemistry was studied. Maritime pine heartwood and sapwood powders were used to facilitate the chemical characterizations and colorimetric analyses by the CIEL*a*b* system. Brighter materials were obtained after the treatment by reducing significantly the color difference. The chemical modifications of wood surface were characterized by infrared spectroscopy analyses. The color evolution of the material overtime was also studied thanks to an accelerated ageing under UV irradiation. It was demonstrated that even if a color reversion occurred by oxidation, the color remained homogeneous between heartwood and sapwood.
Highlights
Maritime pine is one of the most common softwood found in South West of France, covering one million hectares of the country forestry area [1]
It was suggested in several studies that those low molecular weight phenolic molecules present in the transition zone evolved into more complex structures within heartwood
Hydrogen peroxide treatment has been used since the 1930s to successfully modify wood color but very few studies [30,31] were made on the influence of the process on the color homogenization between heartwood and sapwood
Summary
Maritime pine is one of the most common softwood found in South West of France, covering one million hectares of the country forestry area [1]. It was suggested in several studies that those low molecular weight phenolic molecules present in the transition zone evolved into more complex structures within heartwood This was observed for hardwood [11,12,13,14] as well as softwood [15,16,17,18,19,20]. Hydrogen peroxide treatment has been used since the 1930s to successfully modify wood color but very few studies [30,31] were made on the influence of the process on the color homogenization between heartwood and sapwood. Ageing experiments under UV irradiation were carried out to examine the behavior of the treated powders overtime
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