The Resistance of Wood Plastic Composite to the Dry-Wood Termite Cryptotermes Cynocephalus Light. and the Subterranean Termite Coptotermes Curvignathus Holmgren Infestation

Abstract

Industrial Plantation Forest (IPF) has been developed for additional log supply in Indonesia. The target of IPF is 6 million ha, but until 1999 only 2.2 million ha of fast growing species have been planted, e.g sengon (Para.rerianthe.r fakataria (L. Nielsen), pine (Pinu.r merku.rii Jungh et. de V.), and rubber-wood (Hevta bra.r.rilien.ris Muel.Arg.) The disadvantage of fast growing species is blamed on their inferior physical and mechanical properties, composed of the ordinary structural wood of the convensionally growing species. Polystyrene impregnation may be applied to increase physical and mechanical properties, so the wood of fast growing species can be more resistant to bio-deterioration attack as well. I. INTRODUCTIONKeywords: Wood Plastic Composite (WPC),termites, durability, Impralit CKB Wood plastic composites (WPC) were made by impregnating monomer and vinyl acetate monomer with addition of terbutyl peroxide catalyst. This laboratory scale experiment aimed at looking into the durability of WPC polymerized at varying mixture ratios between styrene and vinyl acetate monomers, compared to the natural durability of the corresponding wood treated with impralit CKB. In this regard, wood samples were dried until 10 % moisture content, and then they were put in the tank under 20 mm Hg vacuum was being released. Styrene monomer with vinyl acetate addition was flown to the tank, and the wood samples were immersed in the monomer for 24 hours. Furthermore, the wood samples were taken out, and wrapped with aluminum foil, and then were put in the oven for 24 hours at 60° C. The wraps were opened, and the samples were conditioned. The samples were tested to dry wood termite (Cryptoterme.r ry11ocepha/11.r Light.), and the Subterranean termite (Coptotermes mrvignathu.r Holmgren.). Investigated factors were (i) wood species consisting of sengon, pine, and rubber wood, and (ii) ratio of styrene to vinyl acetate. i.e. 90/10; 80/20; 70/30; and 60/40. For comparison, each wood samples treated with Impralit CKB 3% and untreated (unpolymerized) wood samples (a control) were also prepared. The results showed that polymer loadings in the sengon, pine and rubber wood were 118 %, 72 % and 44% respectively. Increasing of vinyl acetate to styrene tended to decrease polymer loading, the addition of 10% gave 96% polymer loading, 20% gave 108%, 30% gave 71 %, and 30% gave 38 % respectively. It appeared that treatment of styrene with low vinyl acetate additions (60:40) had resulted in consecutively 95.67% and 97.75 % mortality of the dry wood termite and sub subterranean termite. This implied that the treatment might increase the wood resistance to the wood destroying insect.

Improvement of Fast-Growing Wood Species Characteristics by MEG and Nano SiO2 Impregnation

“…Impregnation research on fast-growing wood species in Indonesia has been widely performed, using styrene (Darma et al, 2002;Jasni et al, 2004) and methyl methacrylate (MMA) (Wardani et al, 2012;Hadi et al, 2013Hadi et al, , 2015, wood vinegar and an animal adhesive (Arsyad et al, 2019), but little research has been done on impregnation with monoethylene glycol (MEG) and SiO 2 nanoparticles (nano SiO 2 ). MEG is a hygroscopic substance and can absorb twice its weight in water at 100% relative humidity (Budavari, 1989).…”