Kinetics of wood-anhydride reactions: a novel approach

Abstract

The reaction kinetics of wood (Corsican pine) with acetic, propionic, succinic, and hexenyl succinic anhydride dissolved in pyridine were investigated. To determine reaction kinetics, anhydride depletion of the reactive liquid was monitored. This approach allows to collect a complete sequence of kinetic data from a single experiment. The results carry information on reaction kinetics without allowing for a precise determination of reaction turnover vs time. For all anhydrides investigated, the reaction kinetics of wood samples of different size (300 μm–4 mm) do not depend on sample size, hence the reaction is activation- not diffusion-controlled. All results are consistent with a remarkably simple model of purely activation-controlled reaction kinetics with a single activation energy. Activation energies were determined. The result for propionic anhydride agrees with an earlier investigation based on weight gain of reacted wood.