Despite many excellent properties of wood which make it suitable for many applications, it suffers from a number of disadvantages limiting its use. For instance, modification is needed to reduce water sorption and to improve decay resistance, dimensional stability and weathering performance. In addition, wood/liquid interaction such as water wettability on wood plays an important role in design and characteristics of many processes and phenomena such as adhesion, coating, waterproofing, wood chemical modification, and weathering. This thesis focuses on enhancing the understanding of wetting of wood, with emphasis on modified wood. The influence of surface chemical composition of wood and its microstructural characteristics on wetting and swelling properties has also been studied. A multicycle Wilhelmy plate technique has been developed to evaluate wetting properties of porous materials, such as wood, in which the samples were subjected to repeated immersions and withdrawals in a swelling liquid (water) and in a non-swelling liquid (octane). This method was utilized to dynamically investigate contact angle, sorption and swelling properties, as well as dimensional stability of unmodified, chemically and surface modified wood samples. Scots pine sapwood and heartwood samples were utilized to establish the principles of the technique. Acetylated and furfurylated wood samples with different level of modification were thereafter examined utilizing the developed technique for wetting measurements. A perimeter model based on a linear combination of the measured force and final change in sample perimeter was suggested to evaluate the dynamic dimensional stability of wood veneers. The feasibility of this method for studying dynamic wettability was investigated by measuring the changes of advancing and receding contact angles over repeated cycles on surface modified wood samples, created by combining liquid flame spray and plasma polymerisation methods. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray computed tomography (XCT) were employed to study the surface chemical composition and microstructural properties of the samples, respectively. Three different kinetic regimes were observed in the wetting measurements: i) fast wetting and spreading of the liquid on the wood surface, ii) void filling and wicking and iii) swelling, which was the slowest of the three. The multicycle Wilhelmy plate method was found to be suitable for studying liquid penetration, sorption, and dimensional stability of swelling materials. The results demonstrate that the wetting properties of wood are highly affected by surface chemistry and microstructure. It was shown that using both swelling and non-swelling liquids in wetting measurements allow to distinguish between capillary liquid uptake and swelling. Based on this, for chemically modified samples, it was demonstrated that acetylation mostly reduces swelling, while furfurylation reduces both swelling and capillary uptake. This is in line with the microstructural study with X-ray computed tomography where a significant change in the porosity was found as a result of furfurylation, conversely acetylation left the total porosity values unchanged. Wetting results for hydrophobised wood samples demonstrate that the multi-scale roughness obtained by combination of nanoparticle coating and plasma polymerization increased both the hydrophobicity and the forced wetting durability compared to the micro-scale roughness found on wood modified with plasma polymerisation alone. / <p>QC 20151029</p> / Sustainable wood modification

The increasing awareness of sustainability motivates the development of building materials from renewable resources. The requirements of wood-based products with improved durability, for example, an enhanced liquid repellence, is still a challenge. The aim of this thesis is to develop and study concepts to functionalize wood surfaces to obtain superhydrophobicity or superamphiphobicity, i.e. extreme liquid repellence of both water and oils. Birch and acetylated birch veneer samples were surface-modified by hydrophobized silicone nanofilaments. Specifically, birch samples surface-modified by fluorinated silicone nanofilaments (F-SMB) showed superamphiphobicity, which repelled water, ethylene glycol and hexadecane with static contact angles greater than 150° and roll-off angles lower than 10°. Birch and acetylated birch samples surface-modified by non-fluorinated silicone nanofilaments (SMB and SMAB) showed superhydrophobicity with static contact angles greater than 160° towards water, even for samples prepared using the shortest silicone nanofilaments reaction time of 1 h. In liquid uptake measurements submerging the F-SMB in water, ethylene glycol and hexadecane, a superamphiphobic plastron effect was observed which indicates that the wood surface was in Cassie-Baxter state. The plastron reduced the liquid uptake rate and extent depending on the interactions (diffusion and solubility) between the liquid and the silicone nanofilaments. The F-SMB showed good self-cleaning properties towards water and hexadecane. In multicycle Wilhelmy plate measurements, the SMB showed a lower water uptake than that of the acetylated samples, while the SMAB showed the lowest water uptake, i.e. a pronounced increased water resistance, due to a combined effect of acetylation and surface modification. In addition, the SMB exhibited more color change than the SMAB, which was caused by the release of hydrochloric acid during the surface modification process. / Den ökande medvetenheten kring hållbarsamhällsutvecklingmotiverarutveckling avbyggmaterial från förnybara resurser. Kraven på träbaserade produkter med förbättrad beständighet, exempelvisennödvändig vätskeavvisandeförmåga, är fortfarande en utmaning.Syftet med dennaavhandling äratt utveckla och studera koncept för attfunktionalisera träytorför att uppnåsuperhydrofobicitet ochsuperamfifobicitet, dvs en extrem vätskerepellerande egenskap för både vatten och oljor.Björk-och acetyleradebjörkfanérproverytmodifierades med hydrofobiserad silikon-nanofilament. Specifikt visade björk ytmodifierademedfluorerade silikon-nanofilament (F-SMB) superamfifobicitet, som repelleradevatten, etylenglykol och hexadekan med kontaktvinklar större än 150° och avrullningsvinklar lägre än 10°. Björk-och acetyleradebjörkproverytmodifierademedicke-fluorerade silikon-nanofilament (SMB och SMAB) visade superhydrofobicitet med kontaktvinklar större än 160° förvatten, även förprover framställda medkortast reaktionstid på 1 timme.Vid vätskeupptagningsmätningargenom att sänka F-SMB i vatten, etylenglykol och hexadekanobserverades en plastroneffekt som indikerade att träytan var i Cassie-Baxter-tillstånd. Plastronen minskade F-SMB vätskeupptagningshastighet och -nivåberoende på växelverkan(diffusion och löslighet) mellan vätskan och silikon-nanofilament. F-SMB uppvisadegoda självrengörande egenskaper förvatten och hexadekan.Vidmulticykel Wilhelmy-mätningarvisade SMB ett lägre vattenupptag än det acetylerade träet, medan SMAB visade denlägsta vattenupptagningen,det vill säga en mycketmärkbar ökad vattenavvisning, tack vareav en kombinerad effekt av acetylering och ytmodifiering. Dessutom uppvisade SMB en störrefärgförändring än SMAB, orsakad av frisättningen av saltsyra under ytmodifieringsprocessen. / <p>QC 20201113</p>