A Chemical Kinetics Study of the Propionic Anhydride Modification of Corsican Pine. (1):Determination of Activation Energies

ABTRACT

The chemical kinetics of wood modification using propionic anhydride with pyridine as solvent/catalyst have been investigated. Reactions at the surface obey pseudo first-order kinetics, by determining rate constants for the reaction at a series of temperatures the activation energy for the surface reactions has been obtained. A comparison of the use of methods of rate constants and initial rates to determine activation energies has shown that the two methods give different values of E_a. It is thought that this discrepancy can be attributed to the change in the number of surface reactive sites with temperature.