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Using a water‐soluble melamine‐formaldehyde resin to improve the hardness of Norway spruce wood
Author(s) -
Gindl Wolfgang,
Hansmann Christian,
Gierlinger Notburga,
Schwanninger Manfred,
Hinterstoisser Barbara,
Jeronimidis George
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.20653
Subject(s) - melamine , fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , materials science , composite material , hardwood , beech , aqueous solution , melamine resin , immersion (mathematics) , formaldehyde , penetration (warfare) , polymerization , hardness , solid wood , polymer chemistry , nuclear chemistry , chemical engineering , chemistry , polymer , organic chemistry , ecology , mathematics , layer (electronics) , operations research , forestry , pure mathematics , engineering , biology , geography , coating
Samples of Norway spruce wood were impregnated with a water‐soluble melamine formaldehyde resin by using short‐term vacuum treatment and long‐term immersion, respectively. By means of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and UV microspectrophotometry, it was shown that only diffusion during long‐term immersion leads to sufficient penetration of melamine resin into the wood structure, the flow of liquids in Norway spruce wood during vacuum treatment being greatly hindered by aspirated pits. After an immersion in aqueous melamine resin solution for 3 days, the resin had penetrated to a depth > 4 mm, which, after polymerization of the resin, resulted in an improvement of hardness comparable to the hardwood beech. A finite element model describing the effect of increasing depth of modification on hardness demonstrated that under the test conditions chosen for this study, a minimum impregnation depth of 2 mm is necessary to achieve an optimum increase in hardness. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 93: 1900–1907, 2004