Thermogravimetry as a possible tool for determining modification degree of thermally treated Norway spruce wood

Thermal treatment is one of environmental friendly wood modification processes, developed in order to improve wood's natural durability and dimensional stability. Beside wood species, mainly isothermal temperature of heat-treatment and process duration affect these properties, which also correlate with the mass losses caused by the treatment. However, there is a lack of suitable external quality control methods. In this work thermogravimetry as a potential method for determining the degree of thermal modification is presented. Several calibration curves, representing the mass losses in a certain temperature range (the values obtained from the TG curves) compared to weight losses caused by previous heat-treatment (known values), were established for spruce wood samples modified at different isothermal temperatures (from 170 to 220 A degrees C). Linear plot and good correlation factors (R (2) = 0.95 and 0.96) were obtained for the TG mass losses from 130 to 280 A degrees C and from 130 to 300 A degrees C, both under nitrogen atmosphere. The predominant cause of mass loss in this temperature region was depolymerisation and thermal decomposition of hemicelluloses residues. Lower correlation factors were obtained under the air atmosphere and in the wider temperature range, respectively.