Wood Modification by Fluorocarbons of different chain lengths

Abstract

Wood has useful characteristics due to which it has many uses and applications in particular in engineering and over all in every spheres of human life. But wood has also a lot of draw backs that limits its applications in many areas. One of the main is that wood is hygroscopic and has great tendency to absorb water and moisture due to major hydrophilic components of wood. The main aim of our research work is to modify the hydrophilic nature of yellow pine wood by blocking or decreasing (OH) groups inside the wood by using fluorocarbons of different chain lengths (CF4, CF6 ,CF8.). These are very promising materials frequently used in textile sector to impart hydrophobicity in fibers. Main focus is by using different fluorocarbons to explore the potential of different chain lengths for wood modification by improving its hydrophobicity, thermal properties, fireret ardency, color protection and dimensional stability. In practice, different fluorocarbons were vacuum impregnated into the pine wood to reduce the density of (OH) groups in its molecular structure. Subsequently, the treated wood samples were characterized by Scanning electron microscope (SEM) for its surface morphology and surface activation and contact angle measurements were used to reveal the degree of super hydrophobicity of fluorocarbon modified wood. Water related properties like water and moisture sorption and ant swelling efficiency and fire resistance properties were also extensively tested. Finally test properties were optimized and correlations were established among the treatments parameters and improvements achieved by using fluorocarbons of different chain lengths. Since, fluorocarbon based chemical wood modification is low cost, innovative approach to suppress the shortcoming of normal wood in a non-toxic manner and has huge potential to find applications in furniture and construction sectors in near future.