Abstract
Wood is a renewable resource that has been used as a material in appearance products for years. Despite its acceptable mechanical resistance, different modification processes were developed to enhance wood’s hardness and make it an even more durable material. Impregnating wood pores with monomers under vacuum-pressure cycle is a common method for that purpose. However, most implemented processes are long and mostly submerge wood into a monomer formulation (Bethell’s full-cell process). For that, they can be considered wasteful on the quantity of materials used, energy consumed and on process duration. The objective of this paper was to evaluate the parameters that influence the penetration of monomers into the tangential surface of Yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis Brit.) samples. The analyzed factors were the monomer formulation’s viscosity, the surface temperature, the vacuum level applied to the process, the anatomy of samples, and the absorption time. After impregnation, the weight gain of the samples was calculated. Monomer penetration depth was calculated and visualized using density profiles and micro X-ray tomography imaging. Results showed that using a low viscosity monomer formulation allied to a certain level of vacuum and absorption time can considerably increase the impregnation into the wood.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Cai X, Blanchet P (2010) Acrylate wood densification: effects of vacuum time and nanoparticles on chemical retention, penetration, and resin distribution. Wood Fiber Sci 42:318–327
Cai X, Blanchet P (2011) Effect of vacuum time, formulation, and nanoparticles on properties of surface-densified wood products. Wood Fiber Sci 43:326–335
Carrillo CA, Saloni D, Lucia LA, Hubbe MA, Rojas OJ (2012) Capillary flooding of wood with microemulsions from Winsor I systems. J Coll. Interface Sci 381:171–179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcis.2012.05.032
Chan JW, Hoyle CE, Lowe AB, Bowman M (2010) Nucleophile-initiated thiol-Michael reactions: effect of organocatalyst, thiol, and ene. Macromolecules 43:6381–6388
Chatani S, Nair DP, Bowman CN (2013) Relative reactivity and selectivity of vinyl sulfones and acrylates towards the thiol–Michael addition reaction and polymerization. Polym Chem 4:1048–1055
Cook WD, Chen F, Pattison DW, Hopson P, Beaujon M (2007) Thermal polymerization of thiol–ene network-forming systems. Polym Int 56:1572–1579. https://doi.org/10.1002/pi.2314
Damay J, Fredon E, Gérardin P, Lemmens P (2015) Evaluation of axial impregnation as an alternative to classical wood vacuum pressure impregnation method. Maderas Ciencia y Tecnología 17:883–892. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-221X2015005000077
Ding W-D, Koubaa A, Chaala A, Belem T, Krause C (2008) Relationship between wood porosity, wood density and methyl methacrylate impregnation rate. Wood Mat Sci Eng 3:62–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/17480270802607947
Evans PD, Morrison O, Senden TJ et al (2010) Visualization and numerical analysis of adhesive distribution in particleboard using X-ray micro-computed tomography. Int J Adhes Adhes 30:754–762. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijadhadh.2010.08.001
Fang C-H, Mariotti N, Cloutier A, Koubaa A, Blanchet P (2012) Densification of wood veneers by compression combined with heat and steam. Eur J Wood Prod 70:155–163. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00107-011-0524-4
Farina A, Bargigia I, Janeček E-R et al (2014) Nondestructive optical detection of monomer uptake in wood polymer composites. Opt Lett OL 39:228–231. https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.39.000228
Fito P (1994) Modelling of vacuum osmotic dehydration of food. In: Water in foods. Elsevier, pp 313–328
Fito P, Pastor R (1994) Non-diffusional mechanisms occurring during vacuum osmotic dehydration. J Food Eng 21:513–519
Fito P, Chiralt A, Barat JM, Andres A, Martinez-Monzo J, Martinez-Navarette N (2001) Vacuum impregnation for development of new dehydrated products. J Food Eng 49:297–302
Fujita M, Iizuka Y, Miyake A (2017) Thermal and kinetic analyses on Michael addition reaction of acrylic acid. J Therm Anal Calorim 128:1227–1233. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-016-5985-6
Hass P, Wittel FK, Mendoza M, Herrmann HJ, Niemz P (2012) Adhesive penetration in beech wood: experiments. Wood Sci Technol 46:243–256. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00226-011-0410-6
Hill CA (2007) Wood modification: chemical, thermal and other processes. John Wiley & Sons
Janeček E-R, Walsh-Korb Z, Bargigia I et al (2017) Time-resolved laser spectroscopy for the in situ characterization of methacrylate monomer flow within spruce. Wood Sci Technol 51:227–242. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00226-016-0882-5
Jinman W, Chengyue D, Yixing L (1991) Wood permeability. J Northeast For Univ 2:91. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02874797
Kamke FA, Lee JN (2007) Adhesive penetration in wood—a review. Wood Fiber Sci 39:205–220
Kolesnikov GN, Kantyshev AV, Zaitseva MI, Gorodnichina MY, Vasilyev SB (2019) Analysis of wood impregnation as a capillary-porous material. Resour Technol 2:141–151. https://doi.org/10.15393/j2.art.2019.4722
Laine K, Segerholm K, Wålinder M, Rautkari L, Hughes M (2016) Wood densification and thermal modification: hardness, set-recovery and micromorphology. Wood Sci Technol 50:883–894. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00226-016-0835-z
Murmanis L, Chudnoff M (1979) Lateral flow in beech and birch as revealed by the electron microscope. Wood Sci Technol 13:79–87. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00368601
Nair DP, Podgorski M, Chatani S et al (2014) The thiol-Michael addition click reaction: a powerful and widely used tool in materials chemistry. Chem Mater 26:724–744
Panarese V, Herremans E, Cantre D et al (2016) X-ray microtomography provides new insights into vacuum impregnation of spinach leaves. J Food Eng 188:50–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2016.05.013
Popham N (2019) 8-Resin infusion for the manufacture of large composite structures. In: Pemberton R, Summerscales J, Graham-Jones J (eds) Marine Composites. Woodhead Publishing, pp 227–268
Rowell RM (2012) Handbook of wood chemistry and wood composites. CRC Press
Sandberg D, Kutnar A, Mantanis G (2017) Wood modification technologies-a review. iForest Biogeosci For 10:895
Siau JF (1995) Wood: influence of moisture on physical properties. Dept. of Wood Science and Forest Products, Virginia Polytechnic Institute
Tondi G, Thevenon MF, Mies B, Standfest G, Petutschnigg A, Wieland S (2013) Impregnation of Scots pine and beech with tannin solutions: effect of viscosity and wood anatomy in wood infiltration. Wood Sci Technol 47:615–626. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00226-012-0524-5
Triquet J, Blanchet P, Landry V (2020) Hardness of chemically densified Yellow birch in relation to wood density, polymer content and polymer properties. Holzforschung. https://doi.org/10.1515/hf-2020-0076
Wu G, Shah DU, Janeček E-R et al (2017) Predicting the pore-filling ratio in lumen-impregnated wood. Wood Sci Technol 51:1277–1290. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00226-017-0933-6
Zanne AE, Westoby M, Falster DS, Ackerly DD, Loarie SR, Arnold SEJ, Coomes DA (2010) Angiosperm wood structure: Global patterns in vessel anatomy and their relation to wood density and potential conductivity. Am J Bot 97:207–215. https://doi.org/10.3732/ajb.0900178
Zhang Y, Wan H, Zhang SY (2005) Characterization of sugar maple wood-polymer composites: monomer retention and polymer retention. Holzforschung 59:322–329. https://doi.org/10.1515/HF.2005.053
Zhang Y, Zhang SY, Chui YH, Wan H (2006) Effect of impregnation and in-situ polymerization of methacrylates on hardness of sugar maple wood. J Appl Polym Sci 99:1674–1683. https://doi.org/10.1002/app.22534
Zhou M, Caré S, Courtier-Murias D, Faure P, Rodts S, Coussot P (2018) Magnetic resonance imaging evidences of the impact of water sorption on hardwood capillary imbibition dynamics. Wood Sci Technol 52:929–955. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00226-018-1017-y
Acknowledgments
The authors of this paper would like to thank the industrial partners of NSERC-Canlak Industrial Research Chair in Finishes for Interior Wood Products (CRIF), the Spark of Hope Foundation for additional financial support and Bruno Bock Thiochemicals for providing thiol monomers.
Funding
This study was funded by NSERC-Canlak Industrial Research Chair in Finishes for Interior Wood Products (CRIF) through programs CRD (RDCPJ 500157–16) and PCI (PCISA 514917–16).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
MF carried out the experimental part of this work and wrote the manuscript. PB supported the writing of the manuscript, supervised, and provided additional funding to the project. AB-D revised the manuscript and supervised the project. JT developed the chemical system used in this study and revised the manuscript. VL contributed to the development of the formulations and revised the manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this article.
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Frias, M., Blanchet, P., Bégin-Drolet, A. et al. Parametric study of a yellow birch surface impregnation process. Eur. J. Wood Prod. 79, 897–906 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00107-021-01700-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00107-021-01700-7