Evaluating the durability of particleboard made from steam pretreated poplar wood particles against of Polyporus versicolor

Abstract

Microbiological degradation of wood and wood products is one of the most important of disadvantage which reduce its useful life. There are various methods to increase the natural durability of wood and wood products and most of them using chemical reagents. In the past, the thermal modification has been used as a ecofriendly method in many times. In this research the effects of steam pretreatment on the fungal durability of particleboard were studied. Steam pre-treatment was applied on the poplar wood particles using a stainless steel reactor at four temperature levels (155, 165, 175 and 185 ºc) and three retention times (15, 30 and 45 min). The amount of hemicelluloses, acetone extractives of wood particles as well as EMC and Mass loss of test panels were measured.The results indicated that the steam pretreatment significantly decreased the amount of hemicelluloses of wood particles, EMC and mass loss of test samples where as the amount of extractives of wood particles increased.According to the results, the variation of Mass loss of particleboard test samples showed a significant correlation to the variation of EMC of test samples, hemicelluloses and extractives amount of wood particles when the wood particles thermally pre-treated at 165ºC for 30 minutes

Keywords

• PARTICLEBOARD
• Natural durability
• Hemicelulose
• EXTRACTIVES
• mass loss