Dimensionally stable and highly durable bamboo material prepared through a simple surface furfurylation

Furfurylation has long been adopted for wood modification, and found to be effective for bamboo as well. However, traditional full impregnation furfurylation would reduce the dimensional stability of bamboo although its biological durability was improved. Here, we found surface modification with furfuryl alcohol (surface furfurylation) was particularly suitable for bamboo, which is extremely hard to be treated due to its low transverse mass transportation. To optimize the surface furfurylation process for bamboo, an orthogonal experiment was designed with several key physical and mechanical properties tested, including weight percent gain (WPG), equilibrium moisture content (EMC), anti-swelling efficiency (ASE), modulus of rupture (MOR), modulus of elasticity (MOE). Using this process, dimensionally stable (ASE could reach as high as 50% by volume) and highly biological durable (strong resistance against mould, decay and termite) bamboo material with low consumption of furfuryl alcohol (FA) (average WPG lower than 15%) were prepared avoiding significant reduction in mechanical properties. Furthermore, a parameter combination of 70% FA concentration, 105 degrees C curing temperature, and 5 h curing time was proposed as an optimized process for pilot-scale production based on orthogonal experiments and range analysis. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Surface furfurylation was found to be suitable for bamboo, improving its durability and dimensional stability. Through orthogonal experiments, an optimized process for pilot-scale production was proposed based on specific parameter combinations.