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Enhancing the thermal stability, water repellency, and flame retardancy of wood treated with succinic anhydride and melamine-urea-formaldehyde resins

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Published/Copyright: February 14, 2020
Holzforschung
From the journal Holzforschung Volume 74 Issue 10

Abstract

The flame retardancy and dimensional stability of wood were improved by pretreating wood with succinic anhydride (SA), and then impregnating the SA-treated wood with melamine-urea-formaldehyde (MUF) resin. The SA-treated wood obtained graft anchors on the cell wall, which reduced the water-absorbing groups of wood and enhanced the retention of the MUF resin, leading to an efficiently fire-proof protection layer and water repellency. Field-emission scanning electron microscopy and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy demonstrated that the grafting experiment was successful. The water repellency experiments revealed that the pretreated wood impregnated with MUF resin had enhanced hydrophobicity and great improvement in dimensional stability. In addition, the limiting oxygen index value of the modified wood increased by 74%, the flame-retardant performance was improved, and precious rescue time was provided for when a fire occurs. The facile two-step wood modification process substantially enhanced the thermal stability, water repellency, and fire-retardant performance of wood, and therefore represents a novel direction toward hydrophobic and fire-retardant structural materials.

Keywords: dimensional stability; flame retardancy; grafting anchor; melamine-urea-formaldehyde resin; succinic anhydride; wood

  1. Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

  2. Research funding: The authors are grateful for the financial support by a special fund from the Beijing Common Construction Project and Beijing Forestry University (grant no. 2016HXKFCLXY001).

  3. Employment or leadership: None declared.

  4. Honorarium: None declared.

  5. Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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Received: 2019-08-17
Accepted: 2020-01-10
Published Online: 2020-02-14
Published in Print: 2020-10-25

©2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Original articles
  3. Axial variation in the cambium anatomy of Schizolobium parahyba var. amazonicum
  4. Effect of growth stress and interlocked grain on splitting of seven different hybrid clones of Eucalyptus grandis×Eucalyptus urophylla wood
  5. Dynamic parallel-to-grain compressive properties of three softwoods under seismic strain rates: tests and constitutive modeling
  6. European beech log and lumber grading in wet and dry conditions using longitudinal vibration
  7. Influence of chemical pretreatments on plant fiber cell wall and their implications on the appearance of fiber dislocations
  8. Enhancing the thermal stability, water repellency, and flame retardancy of wood treated with succinic anhydride and melamine-urea-formaldehyde resins
  9. Improvement of interfacial interaction in impregnated wood via grafting methyl methacrylate onto wood cell walls
  10. A study on the GA-BP neural network model for surface roughness of basswood-veneered medium-density fiberboard
  11. Characterisation and valorisation of the bark of Myrcia eximia DC. trees from the Amazon rainforest as a source of phenolic compounds
https://doi.org/10.1515/hf-2019-0213
Keywords for this article
dimensional stability; flame retardancy; grafting anchor; melamine-urea-formaldehyde resin; succinic anhydride; wood

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Original articles
  3. Axial variation in the cambium anatomy of Schizolobium parahyba var. amazonicum
  4. Effect of growth stress and interlocked grain on splitting of seven different hybrid clones of Eucalyptus grandis×Eucalyptus urophylla wood
  5. Dynamic parallel-to-grain compressive properties of three softwoods under seismic strain rates: tests and constitutive modeling
  6. European beech log and lumber grading in wet and dry conditions using longitudinal vibration
  7. Influence of chemical pretreatments on plant fiber cell wall and their implications on the appearance of fiber dislocations
  8. Enhancing the thermal stability, water repellency, and flame retardancy of wood treated with succinic anhydride and melamine-urea-formaldehyde resins
  9. Improvement of interfacial interaction in impregnated wood via grafting methyl methacrylate onto wood cell walls
  10. A study on the GA-BP neural network model for surface roughness of basswood-veneered medium-density fiberboard
  11. Characterisation and valorisation of the bark of Myrcia eximia DC. trees from the Amazon rainforest as a source of phenolic compounds
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