Abstract
In this Study, Pinus massoniana wood was heat treated with silicone oil to modify the chemical composition relative to the unmodified wood. Specifically, polysaccharide, lignin, extractives and ash contents were the properties investigated. The wood samples were first of all pre-heated in a micro-wave oven for 5 minutes to ease heat transfer within the wood. Silicone oil heat treatment was carried out at 150, 180 and 210oC for 2, 4, 8 h. The silicone oil heat treated wood was characterized by Fourier transformed infrared (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and contact angle. Results showed that silicone oil heat treatment caused significant decrease in the polysaccharide (P ˂ 0.0001) and ash contents (P ˂ 0.0001) and significant increase in the lignin (P ˂ 0.0001) and extractives contents (P ˂ 0.0001) as the treatment time increased. FTIR results showed that the chemical constituents of the wood were affected by the treatment, while TGA showed that the treated wood resulted in higher thermal stability with increase in the crystallinity index. Silicone oil heat treatment proved to be effective in increasing the contact angle of the wood.
Highlights
Wood is characterized by a porous network structure composed of cell walls made up of biopolymers which endows wood with high strength-to-weight ratio (Sun and Sun 2002), that enables it to be used as a structural material for construction, tools, furniture making, musical instruments and other applications for thousands of years due to its unique porous structure and aesthetic characteristics (Goldstein 1977)
The samples were conditioned at 65 % relative humidity (RH) and 20oC for 6 weeks to attain equilibrium moisture content (EMC) before the treatment
The results of this study indicate that the chemical properties of the P. massoniana wood were affected after silicone oil heat treatment and the polysaccharide content of the treated wood samples decreased with increase of treatment temperature
Summary
Wood is characterized by a porous network structure composed of cell walls made up of biopolymers which endows wood with high strength-to-weight ratio (Sun and Sun 2002), that enables it to be used as a structural material for construction, tools, furniture making, musical instruments and other applications for thousands of years due to its unique porous structure and aesthetic characteristics (Goldstein 1977). The wood structures are affected by changes in the environment, at high moisture levels (Fuller et al 1997) and its wood components are degraded by microorganisms. Hemicelluloses polymers play a significant role since they are hygroscopic, accessible, and contain some sugar residues that may serve as feed for microorganisms to start wood degradation (Adebawo et al 2016, Rowell 2012, Okon et al 2018b).
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