The susceptibility of surface-modified wood, surface-modified acetylated wood and acetylated wood to mold and blue stain fungi was investigated. The surface modifications were based on fluorinated and non-fluorinated silicone nanofilaments for increased hydrophobicity. Results showed an increased mold resistance of the surface-modified superhydrophobic wood with mold appearing later or with less intensity on the modified surfaces than on the untreated wood in accelerated mold chamber tests due to the increased water resistance of the samples. All acetylated wood samples exhibited good mold resistance as the available water in acetylated wood was reduced. The surface modifications on acetylated wood had a slightly negative effect on mold resistance due to side effects from the modification. The surface-modified wood showed high blue stain fungi coverage, whereas almost no blue stain fungi were observed on the acetylated wood and surface-modified acetylated wood. The surface-modified superhydrophobic wood showed high mold coverage after conditioning in a high-humidity environment or after exposure to UV irradiation. Meanwhile, the acetylated wood and surface-modified superhydrophobic acetylated wood showed a small amount of mold coverage in these conditions. © 2023 The Authors

Proper surface pre-treatment plays an important role for good compatibility between the wood and the coating. The present study aimed to determine the correlations between the type of surface pre-treatment and the wettability for unmodified and thermally modified beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) wood with water and water-based coatings. A new approach to evaluate the water permeability of coating systems was developed by investigating the wettability of wood samples using the multicycle Wilhelmy plate method in combination with immersion of the coated samples in water. The treatment with non-thermal plasma made the wood surfaces more hydrophilic and treatment with organic solvent made the surfaces more hydrophobic. The poorer wettability and sorption with water and coatings in thermally modified wood was clearly related to the altered chemical composition of wood. As the water content in coating increased, the amount of absorbed coating in the wood decreased. The surface pre-treatments had no effect on the colour of the coated wood. The higher water content in the coating negatively affected the water protection performance of the coated wood. The thinner coating films correlated with greater water absorption in the coated wood, generally resulting in microscopic delamination between the wood substrate and the coating films. © 2022, The Author(s)

The effect of prolonged ultraviolet (UV) irradiation on the performance of superhydrophobized birch and acetylated birch wood was investigated. The surface modification of the wood was based on a newly developed method using silicone nanofilaments. The combination of surface modification and acetylation of wood showed good wetting resistance also after 600 h of UV exposure, with water contact angles greater than 140° and water uptake 30 times lower by weight than that of the non-surface-modified wood as determined by multicycle Wilhelmy plate measurements. Scanning electron microscopy images revealed that the silicone nanofilaments can still be observed on the wood samples after UV irradiation. The surface-modified wood samples exhibited significant color change after UV exposure. FTIR spectra showed that lignin was degraded on both the non-surface-modified wood surfaces and the wood surface-modified with the silicone nanofilaments. © 2022 The Authors

In this work, a non-fluorinated surface treatment, i.e., hydrophobized silicone nanofilaments, was applied on both birch and acetylated birch wood samples via a gas-phase based reaction. A superhydrophobic behavior was observed on both the surface-modified samples as revealed by the static water contact angles (CAs) greater than 160°, also valid for samples prepared with the shortest reaction time of 1 h. The dynamic wettability behavior of the samples was studied by a multicycle Wilhelmy plate method. The surface-modified acetylated birch exhibited a pronounced enhanced water resistance, resulting in very low water uptake of 3 ± 1 wt% after 100 cycles, which was not only about 29 and 5 times lower than that of the non-surface-modified birch and acetylated birch, respectively, but also three times lower than that of the surface-modified birch. Moreover, the aesthetic appearance of the acetylated wood was maintained as the surface modification only resulted in a small color change. This work shows the potential of preparing super water-repellent wood by non-fluorinated surface modification. 

The increasing utilization of wood-based products raises new demands for improved durability, for example an enhanced liquid repellence. Superhydrophobic or superamphiphobic surfaces have been widely fabricated. Less attention has been paid to such modifications on wood and the changes of its hygroscopic or solvoscopic properties. In this work, wood veneers were surface modified by hydrophobized silicone nanofilaments. Results revealed that the surface-modified wood showed a superamphiphobic behavior, i.e. it repelled water, ethylene glycol and hexadecane with contact angles greater than 150° and roll-off angles of less than 10°. Most importantly, a plastron effect was observed when the surface-modified wood was submerged in water, ethylene glycol or hexadecane, which reduced the liquid sorption rate and extent to various degrees. By comparing the measured permeabilities and the estimated diffusive mass flux and supported by Hansen solubility parameters and the degrees of swelling, it is concluded that diffusion is the major cause for the liquid uptake in the surface-modified wood. Moreover, the interaction between the liquid and the modified layer (the solubility of the liquid in the modified layer) also needs to be considered, especially in hexadecane. © 2020 The Authors

The effect of wollastonite on the wetting properties of welded Scots pine-joints was studied using the multicycle Wilhelmy plate method and by observation of the chemical composition of the welded joints. Welding pine with wollastonite for 5 s resulted in a decrease in the water uptake and the swelling, and an increase in the contact angle of the welded joint compared to welded wood without wollastonite. High-performance liquid chromatography and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry showed the presence of dehydration products such as furfural, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, and levoglucosan in methanol extracts from welded joints of specimens welded with and without wollastonite. Phenols were also found by analysis using the Folin-Ciocalteu method and High-performance liquid chromatography. The importance of such compounds in relation to the wetting properties of the welded joint is discussed.

The effect of extractives removal on liquid sorption, swelling and surface energy properties of unmodified wood (UW) and thermally modified Scots pine heartwood (hW) (TMW) was studied. The extraction was performed by a Soxtec procedure with a series of solvents and the results were observed by the multicycle Wilhelmy plate method, inverse gas chromatography (IGC) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. A significantly lower rate of water uptake was found for the extracted UW, compared with the unextracted one. This is due to a contamination effect in the latter case from water-soluble extractives increasing the capillary flow into the wood voids, proven by the decreased water surface tension. The swelling in water increased after extraction 1.7 and 3 times in the cases of UW and TMW, respectively. The dispersive part of the surface energy was lower for the extracted TMW compared to the other sample groups, indicating an almost complete removal of the extractives. The FTIR spectra of the extracts showed the presence of phenolic compounds but also resin acids and aliphatic compounds.

Superhydrophobic surfaces have high potential in self-cleaning and anti-fouling applications. We developed a one-step superhydrophobic coating formulation containing sodium oleate (NaOl), hydrophobized precipitated calcium carbonate and biobased cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) hydrophobized with either alkyl ketene dimer (AKD) or amino propyl trimethoxy silane (APMS) as a binder to fix and distribute the particles. Coatings were made on paperboard and the wetting behavior of the surface was assessed. Static, advancing and receding contact angles with water as well as roll-off and water shedding angle were compared to coatings made with styrene butadiene latex as binder instead of CNFs. Modifications with alkyl ketene dimer showed most promising results for a viable process in achieving superhydrophobic paperboard but required reformulation of the coating with optimized and reduced amount of NaOl to avoid surfactant-induced wetting via excess NaOl. A static water contact angle of 150° was reached for the CNF-AKD. The use of CNFs enables the improvement of coating quality avoiding cracking with the use of nanocellulose as a renewable binder.

X-ray computed tomography (XCT) was utilized to visualize and quantify the 2D and 3D microstructure of acetylated southern yellow pine (pine) and maple, as well as furfurylated pine samples. The total porosity and the porosity of different cell types, as well as cell wall thickness and maximum opening of tracheid lumens were evaluated. The wetting properties (swelling and capillary uptake) were related to these microstructural characteristics. The data show significant changes in the wood structure for furfurylated pine sapwood samples, including a change in tracheid shape and filling of tracheids by furan polymer. In contrast, no such changes were noted for the acetylated pine samples at the high resolution of 0.8

The hydrophilic nature of wood surfaces is a major cause for water uptake and subsequent biological degradation and dimensional changes. In the present paper, a thin transparent superhydrophobic layer on pine veneer surfaces has been created for controlling surface wettability and water repellency. This effect was achieved by means of the liquid flame spray (LFS) technique, in the course of which the nanoparticulate titanium dioxide (TiO2) was brought to the surface, followed by plasma polymerisation. Plasma polymerised perfluorohexane (PFH) or hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) were then deposited onto the LFS-treated wood surfaces. The same treatment systems were applied to silicon wafers so as to have well-defined reference surfaces. The dynamic wettability was studied by the multicycle Wilhelmy plate (mWP) method, resulting in advancing and receding contact angles as well as sorption behavior of the samples during repeated wetting cycles in water. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were employed to characterise the topography and surface chemical compositions and to elucidate the question how the morphology of the nanoparticles and plasma affect the wetting behavior. A multi-scale roughness (micro-nano roughness) was found and this enhanced the forced wetting durability via a superhydrophobic effect on the surface, which was stable even after repeated wetting cycles. The hydrophobic effect of this approach was higher compared to that of plasma modified surfaces with their micro-scale modification.