Physical properties of furfurylated mangium (Acacia mangium Willd.) and pine (Pinus merkusii Jungh et de Vriese) woods

Abstract

Wood from plantation forest contains a lot of sapwood and juvenile wood which has inferior in physical properties. Furfurylation could improve the properties through a reaction between Furfuryl Alcohol (FA) with a hydroxyl group of wood components. The purpose of the study was to improve the physical properties of mangium (Acacia mangium Willd.) and pine (Pinus merkusii Jungh et de Vriese) woods. The wood specimens for physical properties was prepared according to the ASTM D 143-94. They were vacuumed at 600 mmHg during 30 minutes, when the vacuum has been released, the FA reagent was inserted to the tank and followed with pressure at 10 kg/cm2 during 30 minutes. The specimens were wrapped with aluminium foil and heated in the oven at 100°C for 24 hours. After conditioned for three weeks, the specimens were tested for physical properties including Weight Percent Gain (WPG), density, Moisture Content (MC), water absorption, swelling, shrinkage, and anti-swelling efficiency (ASwE) according to the ASTM D 143-94. Untreated specimens were also prepared for comparison purpose with five replications for each treatment. The results showed that furfurylated mangium and pine woods reached WPG 11.34% and 17.74%, densities were increased 8.95% and 3.75%, MC were decreased 88.41% and 84.74%, water absorption were decreased 41.76% and 46.84%, volume swelling were decreased 55.18% and 61.57%, volume shrinkage were decreased 34.99% and 64.75%, respectively. ASwE of mangium and pine woods was 55.1% and 61.6%. It could be mentioned that the furfurylated wood had better physical properties compared to untreated woods.

Leachability of Fast-Growing Wood Impregnated with Low Concentrations of Furfuryl Alcohol

“…Increasing the concentration to 20% caused the WPG of FW54 and PW40 to reach ~54% and ~41%, respectively, which indicated that the WPG of Chinese fir was generally higher than that of poplar. Mulyosari et al demonstrated that the WPG of furfurylated wood was related to differences in softwood and hardwood anatomical structure [34]. It has also been demonstrated that hardwood is easier to impregnate treatment than softwood [35,36].…”

“…Svensson et al found that the release of organic compounds from wood in contact with water is related to its species and anatomical structure [41]. Numerous studies have demonstrated the existence of a chemical reaction between furfuryl alcohol and lignin [34,42], which leads to a tighter bonding and enhanced structural stability. Therefore, the differences in the leachability and M L of poplar and Chinese may be due to the higher pit aspiration and lignin content of Chinese fir wood cells, which makes FA resin more likely to retain and form macromolecules.…”