Advanced tannin based wood preservatives: Select Presentations from the 3rd International Conference on Processing Technologies for the Forest and Biobased Products Industries (PTF BPI 2014), September 24-26, 2014, Kuchl, Austria

Protecting timber with natural products is one of the most significant challenge in wood technology since decades, but recently also the political institutions show the need for this challenge to be win. Tannin-based wood preservatives were studied for a long time (Laks et al. 1988), but only combining the knowledge in tannin chemistry developed in more recent years (Pichelin et al. 1999) it was possible to produce tannin-based formulations that enabled to fix in the timber structure resisting leaching (Thevenon et al. 2009). The first generation of water resistant tannin-based wood preservative presented very good mechanical properties, enhancement of fire resistance and also outstanding biocide properties (Tondi et al. 2012). Unfortunately, the weathering tests underlined the limit of these innovative formulations: On the one hand the dark color of the treated sample brings to higher absorption of UV-light with the consequence of breaking down the tannin polymer and on the other hand the rigid tannin polymer did not resist the continuous dimensional changes of wood (Tondi et al. 2013). With this work we would like to present a second generation of tannin wood preservative in which the effect of polyethylene glycol and caprolactam have been studied. The latter have been added to the tannin-based formulation in order to increase the elasticity of the tannin polymer whether with a blend or with a real copolymer. The results of these tests have shown a considerable improvement of the properties of the sample treated with tannin-caprolactam solution especially in terms of resistance against water and biological attacks. Some improvements have been registered also for the dimensional stability and for the weathering even if these enhancements do not solve the problem completely yet. © Forest Products Society 2015.