Juvenile and mature woods from pine subjected to in situ polymerization with furfuryl alcohol

ABSTRACT

This article presents an elucidative research that aims to bring new uses for the juvenile pine wood, which is highly available and commercially undervalued. For that, specimens from adult pine trees were cut from near to both their pith and bark in order to present the juvenile and mature pine woods, respectively. These specimens were then impregnated with a furfuryl alcohol-based solution, which was in situ polymerized by heating. Treatment parameters (weight percentage gain and density), as well as chemical (by infrared spectroscopy), thermal (by thermogravimetry) and mechanical (by flexure and hardness tests) features were evaluated. Typical mechanisms reported in previous studies for pine woods subjected to furfurylation were also obtained here, including reactions of the furfuryl alcohol with lignin and hemicelluloses from the pine wood, increase in thickness of the wood cell wall, as well as certain increases in thermal and mechanical features. Additionally, thermal stability (in all temperatures) and hardness of the furfurylated juvenile wood overcame the same properties of the untreated mature wood. Still regarding this comparison, the stiffness in flexure was similar for both of them.

KEYWORDS:

• Wood treatment
• eco-friendly treatment
• wood composites
• furfuryl alcohol
• mechanical stiffness

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior [001].