Surface wettability of Brazilian tropical wood flooring treated with He plasma

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of plasma treatment on changes of surface wettability of wood flooring from two Brazilian tropical species, Hymenaea spp. (rode locus) and Tabebuia spp. (lapacho). Wood flooring samples were plasma treated at low pressure in a helium atmosphere. Energy level was set at 100 W and four glow discharge times (5, 15, 30 and 45 s) were tested. Changes in wettability were investigated by measuring apparent contact angle, droplet volume and spreading contact area. The results showed less susceptibility of lapacho wood to the plasma treatments, while reduction of apparent contact angle in rode locus wood reached up to 76% for longer discharge times. In general, discharge time of 15 s produced the same effect as discharge of 45 s on wettability, which is important for industrial applications. Visual analyses revealed increase of water droplet spreading on lapacho wood surface, even though the variation of spreading contact area was not significant. Plasma treatment is feasible to improve wettability of tropical woods. Nevertheless, these findings should be investigated further due to the intrinsic characteristics of woods from tropical species.

Estimation of Wood Toughness in Brazilian Tropical Tree Species

“…Wood has been widely used by man throughout history. It has been directly related to problem solving such as housing, crossing of natural and/or artificial barriers, production of multiple-purpose vehicles, storage and transport of agricultural goods, manufacturing of furniture, utensils and sporting artifacts, among others uses (Toong et al, 2014;Araújo et al, 2016;Cademartori et al, 2016;Calil Neto et al, 2017).…”

The effect of sanding on the wettability and surface quality of Imbuia, Red oak and Pine wood veneers

“…Surface inactivation is another factor that influences the wettability of wood (Cademartori et al 2016). Wood components are bound together by molecular forces and wood binding sites become open and unstable when subjected to weather immediately after machining.…”

“…The wettability of wood is an important parameter to determine how the properties of a given wood's surface react to liquid (Siebra et al 2020). Wettability allows us to analyze the influence of several processes applied to wood, such as the effects of machining (Jankowska et al 2018, Rolleri et al 2016, thermal modification (Chu et al 2016, Lopes et al 2018, Santos and Goncalves 2016, film deposition by plasma technique (Cademartori et al 2016, Cademartori et al 2017, Fang et al 2016Peng and Zhang 2019, and varnish coatings (Darmawan et al 2018, Fonte et al 2019.…”

Trends in Chemical Wood Surface Improvements and Modifications: A Review of the Last Five Years

“…An interesting use of plasmas in wood surface modification is to oxidize its polymeric constituents to increase its surface free energy and wettability. Over the last 5 years, many workers explored this application to increase the interactions between wood and adhesives or coatings [176][177][178][179][180][181][182][183][184][185][186][187]. They found that using reactive carrier gases such as air and O 2 would lead to the creation of polar groups such as carboxyl and carbonyl at the surface of the treated wood, increasing its hydrophilicity and surface free energy.…”