Modification of wood by glutaraldehyde and poly (vinyl alcohol)

Abstract

In the present study, poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) was introduced to the crosslinking impregnation system of glutaraldehyde (GA) to overcome the mechanical losses of wood after modification. The properties of wood treated with various concentrations of PVA in the absence and presence of 10% GA were compared. PVA itself could not fix in wood but can dramatically increase all the tested mechanical properties of wood. Inclusion of PVA as a co-additive with GA, all the treated groups showed fairly good fixation with weight losses less than 5%. Wood treated with a combination of 10% GA and 20% PVA exhibited 30% anti-swelling efficiency (ASE), 17%, 32%, 98% increase of bending, impact and compression strength, respectively. Treatment with 10% GA and lower concentrations of PVA provided higher anti-swelling efficiency and lower improvement or slight reduction in mechanical properties. It is assumed that such influence is attributable to the formation of wood–GA–PVA linkage. The findings demonstrate that using certain amount of PVA as co-additive in crosslinking could be a potential choice for wood modification.