Dimensional stability and water repellent efficiency measurement of chemically modified tropical light hardwood

Abstract

Chemical modification is an often-followed route to improve physical and mechanical properties of solid wood materials. In this study five kinds of tropical light hardwoods species, namely jelutong (Dyera costulata), terbulan (Endospermum diadenum), batai (Paraserianthes moluccana), rubberwood (Hevea brasiliensis), and pulai (Alstonia pneumatophora), were chemically modified with benzene diazonium salt to improve their dimensional stability and water repellent efficiency. The dimensional stability of treated samples in terms of volumetric swelling coefficient (S) and anti-swelling-efficiency (ASE) were found to improve with treatment. The water repellent efficiency (WRE) values also seemed to improve considerably with treatment of wood samples. Furthermore, treated wood samples had lower water and moisture absorption compared to that of untreated ones.